Olympus - Rise of Death
by LunaTheRebelMockingjay
Summary: Three years ago, she ran away from her home in New York. Now nineteen year old Kally Anastas has been pulled into the world of Greek gods and monsters from ancient times. But a traitor at Camp Half-Blood is letting these monsters slip into the camp, and Kally must go on the quest to discover the traitor and put and end to their tricks.
1. Chapter 1

Of all the dumb luck in the world, Kally was sure she had the worst.

Her whole life had been one disaster after another, seemingly with no point or reason – just random catastrophes. Worse still was the fact that she was sure her bad luck was all in her head.

There was no way she could have actually seen what she had seen in the last three years. Old ladies who had seemed kind had turned into weird creatures with animal bodies that began to attack her. A seemingly harmless kitten on the street had become a giant lion with impenetrable fur and a pair of snakes for a tail. Once, Kally had tried to steal from a Bargain Mart and the two salesladies had turned out to be snake headed freaks with wings. One of them seemed to be trying to give Kally free samples while her sister screeched 'Kill her!' Kally was still unsure if she had been talking to her or her sister.

Just last summer she had even seen masses of strange monsters heading towards the Empire State building. There were enormous blue giants that seemed to freeze the very ground they walked on. Strange seal/human/dog hybrids had dolloped along behind the giants, crying out about some army they had to defeat. Women with snakes for legs and suited in full bronze coloured armour were amongst the strange group too. Kally had really thought she'd lost the plot when she'd seen beautiful girls in cheerleading uniforms with blazing hair (literally, their hair was on fire), red eyes, and mismatching legs that seemed to belong to a robot and a donkey.

None of that could have possibly been real. Living on the streets of New York for all those years had taken its toll on her mind. She knew none of it could possibly be real. But…

_What about the girl and the boy?_ a little voice in her head squeaked. It was almost as though the small voice was afraid of mentioning the strange girl that Kally had encountered. Truthfully, she wished it hadn't. She still wasn't entirely convinced that she wasn't just another monster, another image in her mind. The girl was what made her think that maybe she wasn't crazy; maybe it could all be real.

It was three years ago, not long after Kally had left her home and the monsters had started attacking. She was sixteen, she was alone, and she was scared, but she never thought about going home. She never let that thought seep into her mind, and if it ever did slip through her defences, she pushed it away immediately. There was no home for her anymore.

She huddled against a wall in the alleyway she had set up camp in. She had moved around a lot to try and keep the monsters from finding her, but they always caught up in the end.

In the quickly fading light, she used some matches to start a fire with some old newspapers and curled up in the sleeping bag she'd nicked from a camping store.

Stealing wasn't her favourite thing to do, but if it meant the difference between life and death, she was willing to do it. Several times she had stolen things that had saved her life. Not just food and a sleeping bag, but the knife that she now carried with her at all times. The blade appeared to be made out of bronze or something, so she didn't think it would do much in the way of actually protecting her. However, the blade turned the monsters that attacked her into dust, literally, so she wasn't complaining.

Kally was just about to settle down and sleep when she heard a grunt from around the corner. A gruff voice that was definitely a girl's groaned in frustration.

'Chris, please,' she pleaded with someone. Her voice was surprisingly gentle for someone who seemed so rough before. 'Help me out a little. I can't carry you all on my own.'

A boy's voice mumbled something unintelligible and the girl sighed. 'Yes, I know, I know. Come on, we're nearly there. We just have to get out onto the main street and hail a cab. But I'm gonna need you to help me okay?'

More muffled speech from the boy, and she swore the girl started sobbing. 'Chris, please!'

A moment later, they appeared from around the corner. The girl was quite large, and nothing spectacular to look at. She had stringy brown hair that seemed burned off in places, a pudgy face, and an exhausted expression. She was lugging a boy, who must have been Chris, with one arm draped over her shoulder but he was sagging to the ground, not helping the girl in the slightest. He seemed to stumble over his own feet even though he wasn't walking. They both wore full bronze armour over orange t-shirts and jeans.

They both seemed a bit worse for wear, Kally thought. They had scratches all over their faces and arms, and the girl looked like she wanted to collapse. It seemed she was carrying on out of pure determination and stubbornness. The boy's eyes kept crossing over and rolling about in his head like he was unconscious, but he kept mumbling something about a chamber and a labyrinth.

The girl looked up and saw Kally staring at them. The girl gave her the once over, looking at her with disdain. She didn't seem the type to respect a homeless person.

To Kally's surprise, the girl staggered over to her with the boy over her shoulder and collapsed by her fire.

'Can you help us?' she demanded, panting.

Kally stared at the two people by her fire; one angry looking girl and a boy who looked even crazier than Kally felt. She had to help them.

'I don't know.' Kally told her truthfully. 'It's not like I have a lot to offer.'

'Please,' the girl's voice cracked. She started sobbing and she glanced at the boy, Chris, rolling around on the concrete. 'Please, we just need some rest and maybe some food. Then we'll leave in the morning.'

'Where will you go?'

The girl bit her lip. She looked like she wanted to say something but couldn't for some reason. 'Home,' she decided on.

'Hm.' Kally thought about that. She had no home. This girl and her friend Chris were sitting in her home, next to a dumpster in an alleyway off Fifth Avenue in New York. She had to help them find some place better than this for their home. 'Okay. But promise me something.'

'What?' The girl's expression said _name your price_.

'I want to go with you.' She said plainly.

The other girl froze. Obviously Kally had named a price too high, something she could not afford to give. She shook her head.

'I can't. Normal people can't… I mean, people like you can't…' she tried to explain but eventually just stopped. 'No. It's not possible.'

'People like me?' Kally demanded. 'You mean homeless people? You're saying you can't offer me a place in your home because I don't have one of my own?'

'No!' the girl said, surprised. Then she realised how her words must have sounded to Kally. 'Oh, gods no! I didn't mean… no, I just meant that me and Chris… well, we're different. We can't take you where we're going.'

'Why not?'

'It's to do with our parentage,' she said cautiously. 'Our parents aren't quite normal…'

'Yeah, well, join the club,' Kally said, thinking bitterly about her own parents. Well, one parent anyway.

'No, our parents are seriously different. Our dads…' she trailed off.

'Oh, so you guys are siblings?' Kally said, trying to change the subject. They didn't look related but you never know. It wasn't like she looked like her brother in the slightest.

'No, not at all,' the girl waved off her question. She supplied no background information beyond that so Kally was just as confused as she was before.

'What's your name?' Kally asked. 'It's gonna suck if I have to keep calling you "the girl".'

'Huh?' she raised one eyebrow at the last part, but Kally had learned to ignore embarrassment for the most part. She had developed a great poker face. 'The name's Clarisse. And this is Chris, my boyf- uh, my friend.'

She stopped and turned away with a pained look on her face. Obviously it was a touchy subject for her, so Kally decided not press her on it. She had been about to ask about their parents again when Clarisse suddenly leaped up and drew the sword that was clipped to her belt. She glared at a space far above Kally's head and her eyes lit up like a wildfire. Kally turned but all the monsters she'd faced so far could not prepare her for what she saw then.

The monster was at least ten feet tall, with skin that looked sunburnt. He was clad in grey armour that made him seem even bigger than he was. At his waist a curved sword hung, easily as long as Kally's arm. What little hair he had was in tiny stringy clumps down his head, and his face was a nasty grimace. But what was most terrifying about him was the single red eye in the centre of his face.

'Is that a-'

'_Cyclops_,' Clarisse growled in agreement. 'A Laistrygonian, a breed of cannibal Cyclopes.' Then she turned to Kally as though a thought had suddenly struck her. 'Wait, you can see it?'

'What do you mean? Of course I can see it! He's ten feet tall and bright red! How can I not see it?' Kally shouted back.

Clarisse seemed shocked but she snapped out of it quickly. Kally could see in her eyes that she loved to be in battle, that it was what she was meant to do. She raised her sword and, though they had just met, Kally was pretty sure she knew how to use it with deadly force.

'Do you have a weapon?' she asked, somewhat calm despite the Cyclops in front of her. Kally nodded and pulled out her knife. Clarisse looked at it and then back at Kally. 'You're no mortal, are you? That's celestial bronze, same as my sword. You better be good at using it.'

With that, Clarisse charged the monster, calling out a battle cry all the way. She brought her sword down straight into the monster's knee, and the Cyclops roared and stumbled back a few steps. Clarisse glared at it as if to say _bring it on, butt-face!_ The Cyclops recovered and glared at Clarisse.

'Puny child of Ares!' he bellowed. 'You cannot beat me on your own! I am Panos, leader of my Laistrygonian tribe, mover of the earth and rocks! You Ares kids all think you're so tough, and try and take our kind on alone. Well, it's no wonder Ares children are our favourite snacks!'

He grabbed at Clarisse but she rolled out of the way. 'You want to eat me? First you gotta beat me, skunk breath!'

Panos roared with laughter and grabbed at Clarisse again. She slashed at his hand with her sword and dive rolled towards his leg. She then drove her weapon deep into the monster's side, causing him to bellow in pain.

Unfortunately, he spotted Clarisse, smiling in a self-satisfactory way. He smacked her away with his hand and she went flying against a wall. She landed on the concrete below from two storeys up and groaned, clutching her arm. The Cyclops chuckled.

'You see, child of Ares?' he said. 'You cannot defeat me alone!'

Kally had a sudden burst of courage. She made a grab at Chris and propped him against the dumpster so that he looked like he was standing on his own. She knew she wouldn't look like much of a threat if it was just her. Then again, she wasn't sure a skinny, half-crazy boy standing next to her would look very intimidating either. But she positioned him as best she could and pulled out his word and gave it to him. Then she drew her knife and shouted out to Panos.

'Hey ugly! Who says she's alone?'

Both Clarisse and the Cyclops turned to look at Kally. Clarisse paled when she saw Chris standing and looking dazed with his sword out, like she was afraid he'd hurt himself – which, in his state of mental disorientation, was quite likely. Panos laughed again.

'A son of Hermes and a daughter of-' he stopped laughing. 'No… It can't be. Not possible!' He started to whine like a child throwing a fit. 'No fair! You cheat girlie, you cheat!'

Kally had no idea what he was talking about, or who Ares and Hermes were, but she gritted her teeth. She hated being called 'girlie'. It was she tried hard not to be.

Suddenly, Kally was no longer afraid of the red Cyclops. She was just angry at him for calling her girlie. She wished the ground would just open up and swallow the stupid monster and send him straight to the bottom of the earth.

To Kally's amazement, exactly that happened. The ground split with a loud crack right around Panos's feet. He wailed and glared at Kally, his grudge with Clarisse forgotten entirely.

'Curse you! I swear this is not the end of me! You haven't seen the last of Panos! I will never forget this, child of- aaaaarrrgh!'

He fell through the fissure in the earth before he could even finish his curse. The ground sealed up again around him as if it were never opened in the first place. There was no evidence that the red Cyclops had ever existed.

Clarisse gaped at her. Even Chris seemed to have come around to real life enough to be amazed at her feat. Kally wasn't even sure it was her that had caused the earth to split, but there didn't seem to be another reason.

'You… you did that?' Clarisse asked, amazed.

'Uh, I think so.' Kally said, frowning in her confusion. 'I'm not entirely sure…'

Kally desperately wanted to change the subject. She didn't like attention. She felt sure her cheeks would have been bright pink if she still got embarrassed. Turns out that was a handy skill to have in these situations.

'He sounded mad,' she said.

'Yeah, well, you just sent him to Tartarus,' Clarisse said, still awed, as she sheathed her blade. 'If he re-forms in your lifetime he's going to have a serious grudge against you. Count on that.'

That didn't sound good. Kally wasn't sure how something like that could just re-form after being swallowed by the earth, but she decided not to question Clarisse. She seemed to know what she was talking about, even if it did sound like crazy-talk.

'Me and Chris better get going,' Clarisse said suddenly.

'Huh? Why?' Kally asked, even more confused. Then she looked at Chris and saw the problem.

He had slumped to the ground again, his temporary sanity lost. He rolled on the concrete, muttering still about curses and 'beware the earth' and that labyrinth again.

'We can't risk attracting any more monsters.' Kally got the feeling that Clarisse didn't just mean to stop them from hurting Chris. Clarisse was _afraid_ of Kally. It amused her almost that this big, terrifying girl who would take on a ten foot Cyclops on her own could be afraid of Kally.

'Your arm's hurt,' Kally noticed when Clarisse winced after trying to shoulder Chris again. 'Here, I'll help you to your taxi.'

They shared Chris between them, one arm of his draped over each of their shoulders, and managed to get him to the main road to a busy section of Manhattan. They hailed a cab and slid Chris in carefully. Kally badly wanted to ask what had happened to him, but she didn't want to upset Clarisse. For a warrior girl, she seemed very fragile.

'Well, see you, I guess,' Kally muttered, not one for goodbyes.

'Yeah,' Clarisse muttered. Obviously she wasn't a very "sappy goodbye" person herself. 'Look. That was some serious stuff back there. I'll talk to Chi- er, my teacher when I get home. I'll tell him about you. If he gives the word, I'll come back for you, okay? And you can come and live with us at camp.'

Kally didn't know where this camp was or who lived there or anything, but it sounded a lot better than the streets of New York. Besides, who wouldn't want to go to a camp to learn how to use celestial bronze swords to fight huge Cyclopes?

'Yeah, sounds good. Don't take too long, okay?'

Clarisse nodded her agreement and slid into the taxi behind Chris. A moment later, they pulled away from the curb and vanished in the traffic of night time Manhattan.

Kally wasn't to know that she wouldn't see them again for years. She wasn't to know that 'camp' was not a place for her.

Because three years later, Kally was still waiting for the boy and the girl that made her believe maybe she wasn't crazy.


	2. Chapter 2

Sweat trickled down Kally's face. The summer heat bore down on her, causing her to grimace uncomfortably.

Kally had never really liked summer. Everything got too hot and sticky. Besides, she had only a few summer clothes in the small backpack she'd taken with her three years ago when she'd left home. That meant she was left to broil in her ratty jeans and sweatshirt most of the summer.

Winter had always been her favourite time of year. She could wear her favourite sweat pants and the nice oversized green shirt she'd taken from her mother's closet when she was sixteen. She could huddle by her cosy fire and imagine that it was her fireplace back home.

As much as she resented her mother, she did miss her home. Even though her mother wasn't much to boast about, her father was the sweetest man Kally had ever known.

Kally recalled the time he'd tried to tutor her for her history class. She'd been about thirteen at the time, and her dyslexia had only been getting worse, causing major problems at her school – Clarence Academy. Kally's father was a teacher there, a professor of ancient history, so he was helping to explain the myths that Kally just couldn't seem to get her head around.

'So what are the bat-like creatures that work for the god of the Underworld?' Kally read from her homework sheet. It took her several tries with her dyslexia. She'd almost given up on the question because of her constant impatience – attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD, the doctor said.

But Kally's father was patient. He smiled at her encouragingly and beamed when she finally got it right.

'The Furies,' her father said. 'Three of them. All horrible creatures. They do the lord of the Underworld's bidding. Can you tell me who the god of the Underworld is?'

'Hades,' Kally replied immediately, then gave her father an incredulous look. She didn't pay attention in history – how had she known that? Her father seemed undeterred by her sudden knowledge.

'Good.' He smiled warmly. 'Now, can you name the beast guarding the gates to Hades?'

'Cerberus. The three headed dog.'

Again Kally stopped short. She hadn't known that before had she? Her own knowledge was astounding her. Her father just smiled, pleased with her progress.

'Well done Kally,' her dad beamed.

He began to ask another question, but at that moment Kally's mother strode into the room, her arms full of groceries.

There was no denying that her mother was beautiful – she was a model, of course she was gorgeous. Her legs were long and toned, her arms matching. Her physique was enough to make any woman jealous and men unable to turn their heads away. Her shiny blonde hair fell in lustrous waves down to her hips that swayed from side to side as she walked.

People said that Kally looked a lot like her mother. How often she would hear at publicity stunts that her mother had been forced to take Kally along to '_Oh you look so much alike!_' Even at school, where Kally did her best to hide her mother's identity from everybody, she would still get things like '_Oh you're so lucky! You look so much like Penelope Hark!_' These were not the kind of compliments she wanted. She wished she didn't look like her mother, but apart from Kally's dark hair, she could have been her mother's younger twin.

'What are you filling her head with now Graham?' her mother sighed as she began putting away the groceries.

'She needs help with Greek mythology,' her dad replied easily, barely glancing at his wife. 'Being a history professor I decided to lend my services.'

He playfully punched Kally on the shoulder and she giggled, but Penelope Hark stiffened. She whirled around, her eyes wide with horror.

'Well stop,' she said quickly. Her eyes went back to normal, but they seemed darker, angrier. 'Dinner's almost ready.'

'You just got back. How can dinner be almost-' Kally started.

'Don't you backchat me,' she snapped, rounding on Kally. 'Go to your room. I'll call you out when I want to see you again.'

Kally resisted the urge to shout terrible things at her mother. She bit her tongue hard. She knew she would only end up in more trouble if she tried to yell at her mother. So instead, she stood and marched to her room, slamming the door behind her.

Through the door she remembered hearing her mother shouting at her dad, telling him off for teaching her about those things. Kally had never understood why her mother had got so worked up about that lesson. But from then on, her father gave her no more Greek mythology lessons.

Kally frowned up at the sun. She didn't like thinking about her mother any more than she liked this summer heat. Although it was close to six-thirty in the evening, the sun was barely beginning to set, and it bore down with such intensity that Kally had to wander around looking for a shady place to rest.

She knew the town well by now, enough to know where would tolerate her loitering and where would chase her away with a broom. She passed the barber shop where she had once had shaving cream thrown at her head in anger. Next to that was the Middle Eastern restaurant that occasionally gave her some customers' leftovers if there was no one around. The place seemed pretty packed at the moment though, so Kally decided she'd better leave them alone.

Up ahead she spotted a store she'd never seen before. It was a redbrick building with faded green shades over two smashed front windows. The doorframe leaned to one side, which meant the door was always slightly ajar. The door creaked on its hinges in the dry breeze that blew through the city. Racks of old clothing stood beside the door, like advertisement for the place. A faded sign above the door read _Furious Fashions_.

The place looked ancient, and it was clear from the broken windows and faded exterior that no one had been there to care for the place in years. Kally figured, if it really was abandoned then nobody would mind her taking refuge from the heat inside it.

The interior was no more appealing than the exterior. Everything was covered in a thin layer of dust. The same faded green paint covered the walls, peeling off in places, leaving the redbrick backing exposed. More racks of clothing ran along the walls and formed aisles of sorts throughout the room.

Upon closer inspection, Kally realised the clothes were all from different time periods. One rack held a bunch of flowery frilled shirts and tasselled jackets. There were even some bell-bottoms hanging in there somewhere. The label above it said _From the 1970's_. Another rack held costumes that would have made Elvis jealous. Kally didn't need to look at that label to know it was the 50's section. The 20's section had a fancy looking suit on display, and a brightly coloured collection of feathery dresses.

Even stranger items were present in the odd store. A suit of armour stood at attention in one corner, complete with sword and helmet. On a mannequin next to it, a dress that could have been worn by nobility in the 1600's was on display. The label in that section read _From the 1680's_. The 1680's? Kally was starting to get a weird feeling in her gut.

Nearby was a section labelled _From the 1850's_. A costume fit for a naval commander was pinned neatly on the wall, with a simple peasant's dress next to it. A rifle was mounted on the wall above the commander's suit.

Kally moved on from the strange clothes and investigated the rest of the store. A long counter at the back of the store held a glass display cabinet full of accessories from all the different time periods represented. A cash register sat above at the end of the counter, covered in dust just like everything else. Kally considered looting it for a moment.

'I hope you aren't thinking of stealing anything from my store dear,' a voice said behind Kally.

She whirled around. Stepping through one of those doors made from beads on strings, was the strangest woman Kally had ever seen.

The woman seemed to be representing all the time periods sold in the store, all at once. She was probably quite young, but her skin was aged in a strange way. She wore wire rimmed glasses over her dark brown eyes, and her makeup was overdone in dark colours. She wore a floor length brown skirt that fell to her leather sandals. Her top was a bright flowery print that wouldn't have looked out of place in a tourist shop in Hawaii, and a black biker jacket was undone over the top. In her frizzy sand coloured hair was a collection of strange items – a feathery headband from the 20's, a daffodil, a couple of metal bolts, and for some reason what seemed to be a dog whistle.

'I work hard for my earnings,' she continued in a raspy soprano. 'And I don't very much like it when someone else gets the goodies for my hard work.'

Kally was too stunned to say anything in reply to the woman. She didn't know if she was afraid, amused, or horrified. Eventually she found her tongue.

'I – I wasn't going to steal anything,' she lied.

The woman looked at her mistrustingly for moment. She seemed to be searching her brain for answers. Kally didn't like the thought of that. She knew I was impossible, but after all the impossible things she'd seen, a mind-reading old lady with scrap metal in her hair and a flowery shirt didn't seem so crazy after all.

Apparently the lady didn't have telepathic powers because she broke into a grin and stepped forward with her arms out as if to embrace Kally. Suddenly Kally wasn't so sure which was scarier – the possibility of the lady reading minds or her friendliness.

'Well then,' she beamed, which made her look about ten years younger. 'If you aren't here to rob me, what _are_ you here for?'

'I was just looking for some shelter from the heat,' Kally told her. 'It's awfully hot out there. Would you mind if I just stayed here until the sun goes down?'

'But of course! Such a pretty face is always welcomed in my place,' the lady beamed. 'Oh and help yourself to any of the clothes you like. They're on sale, thirty per cent off!'

Kally forced a smile that she hoped looked like gratitude as she eyed the racks of clothing again. 'Oh, really?' Was all she managed to say.

'Yes,' the lady's smile faded and was replaced with watery eyes and a quivering lip. 'For some reason, nobody seems to want my clothes.'

'I can't imagine why,' Kally said flatly.

'Oh I haven't a clue,' the lady told her earnestly. 'I can't see why nobody would want these lovely clothes. They're so…'

'Eye-catching?' Kally offered. Personally, she thought that was being very generous. But the woman shook her head, causing some of the scraps of metal to fall out of her hair.

'I was going to say fabulous,' her lip quivered even more.

Wonderful, now she'd offended the crazy lady. Probably not a great thing to do. Kally had never been very good with people, but she patted the gently sobbing woman on the back, trying to console her. Now she just felt stupid.

Kally peered out the window, still patting the old woman on the back. She noticed that the sun was starting to sink in the sky, casting beautiful golden light over the store. The suit of armour glowed like it was made from the golden sunlight.

'So, these are pretty cool,' Kally wandered over to the 1850's and 1680's area. She was desperately trying to change the subject, if only to avoid more embarrassing attempts at affection. 'Did you make them?'

The woman looked up at the costumes, a bewildered expression on her face. Then she started laughing hysterically.

Kally fought the urge to slap her. She'd just been trying to make her feel better by distracting her. And now she was laughing at Kally like she was the court jester.

Between giggles the woman managed to get out something like 'Oh my dear girl, no! Of course not! I possess no skills in the way of costume making.'

'Well then,' Kally gritted her teeth. 'If you didn't make them, who did? They're like exact replicas.'

'Replicas?' The woman looked confused again. Then understanding flooded her thin face. 'Oh, I see. No dear, those aren't replicas. None of these are. I pride myself on being completely authentic with my works.'

'Authentic?' Kally probably looked like a stunned mullet with her mouth hanging open the way it was. 'But that would make these ones over five-hundred years old. That's impossible. They'd be rusted and ruined.'

'Ah, they are _very_ well preserved aren't they?' the lady nodded and marvelled over her costumes. 'I remember claiming these. That was a fun day. The girl who wore that dress, she was betrothed to the knight who wore that armour there. Oh they were such a lovely couple. And the girl was so very beautiful. I was quite jealous of them, really.'

'But you said that these were authentic, from the 1600's,' Kally reminded her.

This didn't seem to faze the old lady. 'Yes dear, that's right.'

'But then how could you possibly remember claiming them?'

Realisation dawned on Kally. She snapped her head up to look at the lady, who was looking back at her with a passive face. Her first impression of the lady's age had been dead wrong. This woman was saying she was six-hundred years old, probably more. Normal people didn't live that long, which meant only one thing.

'Monster.' Kally breathed.

'What was that dear?' the lady asked, a terrible smile playing at her lips.

She had a feeling that once this lady knew Kally was aware of her being a monster there'd be no escape. Slowly, she began backing up to the door, walking into racks of clothes every few seconds.

'Uh, nothing,' Kally said hurriedly. 'Oh look, it's dark out now. I'd better be going.'

'But you haven't heard my story about the knight and his betrothed yet,' the lady hissed. Wait, _hissed_?

Slowly, the lady's hand extended and curled into claws, with razor sharp talons at the ends. Her teeth elongated into needle-sharp points and her eyes shrunk to black beads. The aged skin that was present before withered into a leathery texture and her clothes slipped off, revealing a matching body that seemed to be filled in only with bones it was so thin. Wings like a bat's unfolded from behind her and extended to their full span, knocking over several racks of clothing nearby. Only her hair stayed the same – frizzy and full of junk.

Kally fell against to the floor and crawled to the exit.

'Oh no you don't, _dear_,' the creature growled loudly. She lunged at Kally and managed to grab her by the ankle to stop her crawling away.

'What _are_ you?' Kally screamed.

'You don't remember me?' the creature seemed confused and hurt, but mostly it was just scary. 'We've met before. Your father insisted upon it. But you were very young… No I don't suppose you'd remember me.'

Kally was still breathing quickly, scared out of her mind, but her brow furrowed in confusion. This… thing was connected to her dad? She couldn't imagine her kindly father allowing this monster near her.

'So, allow me to introduce myself once again. I am Megaera. I am one of the three goddesses of vengeance, although you may know us better as Furies. But since we're practically family, you can call me Meg.'


	3. Chapter 3

In every family there's an embarrassing relative that no one wants to talk about. But Kally never thought that hers would be a hideous batlike creature from Ancient Greek hell.

Kally didn't have time to be shocked at her new "relative". The Fury screeched and used her hold on Kally's ankle to drag her upwards so that she was dangling upside down.

'Such a pretty face,' Meg mused, the talons on her free claw stroking Kally's cheeks tenderly. Kally turned her face away and gritted her teeth. 'It's such a shame my master told me not to kill you. I would certainly enjoy ripping that pretty face clean off your skull.'

From the malicious smile Meg was giving her, Kally was pretty sure she wasn't speaking figuratively.

Kally tried to play the "family" angle. If they were really related (even though she was sure that wasn't even remotely possible) maybe Meg would show some restraint, or even let her go.

'Come on,' Kally pleaded. She was trying for sweet and innocent, but her voice came out so shaky that she sounded more like she'd gone a few too many rounds on a rollercoaster. 'You said so yourself, we're practically family! You don't want to kill your own family do you?'

'Well, I wouldn't usually,' Meg told her, sounding very sincere. 'But for such a pretty relative I think I'll have to make an exception.'

'What?' Kally cried. 'How does that make any sense?'

It turned out Meg didn't much like having flaws in her logic pointed out. She shrieked with rage and flung Kally across the room into the far wall. She landed with a painful _crunch_ on the floor under the section marked _From the 1950's_.

'Think, stupid girl,' the creature snarled. 'Who am I? Which Fury am I? Come on, think! Surely you must remember something from your lessons!'

It seemed stupid to take the advice of a murderous bat who wanted to tear her face off, but Kally did as Meg instructed. She didn't know how Meg knew about them, but she thought back to her lessons on Greek mythology – not the lessons with her father, but all those school lessons she thought she hadn't paid attention to.

_Think Kally_, she demanded from herself. _What do you remember about the Furies?_

From what she could remember there were three Furies, all sisters. They were goddesses of vengeance. They did the bidding of Hades.

All this coursed through her mind in seconds, but it didn't help her any. Meg had already told her all of that. _Come on, think Kally!_

Slowly, Kally recalled her school lessons. Something her teacher had said once stuck in her mind. The Furies were the punishers of crime. They each were dominant over one particular part of their gruesome trade. Tisiphone was the avenger of murder, Alecto was the angry one, and Megaera must have been the third Fury. But what was her specialty?

Kally thought about everything Meg had said to her. She had acquired all of her clothing items over the years. She thought about the story of the suit of armour and the dress. What had happened to them? She'd never found out. She thought about what Meg had said about them. _Oh, they were such a lovely couple. I was quite jealous of them really._

That was it!

'Jealousy.' Kally said under her breath. She wasn't sure why, but she had a feeling that telling the Fury that she knew who she was would be a bad idea.

Meg growled impatiently. 'You're wasting my time child!'

She stalked towards Kally, talons poised to kill. Kally scrambled to the front display cabinet next to her. She grabbed a plastic arm that must have detached itself from its mannequin and slammed it into the glass, shattering it all over the dusty wooden floor.

Reaching inside the cabinet, she grabbed the first sharp item she saw: a steel hair clip with a flower on the end. Not exactly a graceful weapon, but her knife was tucked away in her backpack, which had been flung the opposite way to Kally so that it now lay behind the rapidly approaching Fury.

Kally concealed the hair clip in her sleeve just as the Fury reached her and hoisted her into the air again. She aimed a kick at the creature's head but overshot it and got her foot stuck in a rack of Elvis-style costumes.

'A brave attempt, but I'm afraid it'll take far more than your foot to get rid of me.' Meg jeered, saliva dripping down her grinning features.

Kally frantically tried to free her foot, but it seemed to be caught in a sequined coat pocket. She grimaced and yanked hard, but her leg refused to budge.

She had to get Meg to let go of her. She could use the hidden hair clip in her sleeve to stab the Fury, but that would leave her without a weapon. She thought about just pulling up the creature's feet, but where would that leave her? On top of a stacks-on pile with a vicious Fury, possibly with her foot still stuck on a sequined Elvis jacket. No, she had to get away from Meg. She couldn't just get Meg to drop her and hope she could get away fast enough. She needed a plan.

As if on cue, a plan formulated in Kally's mind. A desperate plan, but a plan all the same.

'I know what happened to that girl,' Kally said, trying not to let the desperation show in her voice. She gestured to the far wall. 'The one who wore that dress? I know what happened to her, and her fiancée.'

Meg snarled and narrowed her beady black eyes at Kally. She prayed to whatever god was out there that her plan wasn't complete madness.

'You saw them together, all happy and in love, the way couples are,' Kally continued. 'And you thought that you should be just as happy as them.'

Meg's face began to relax back into its normal scowl. Kally must have said something wrong. She tried hurriedly to fix whatever mistake she'd made.

'Not just that you should be happy, but that they should be as miserable as you were, all alone,' Kally told Meg, trying to make it sound like she believed it herself. It was almost as if she was willing Meg to believe her story, even if she was wrong. 'You thought, _why should they be happy together while I sit here alone?_'

The growl arising from inside Meg's throat told Kally she'd touched on the truth. Her luck gave her a strange adrenalin rush. She continued to babble on, almost forgetting that she could slip up at any second.

'And so you killed them,' Kally said. 'You killed them both, didn't you? Just so that they couldn't be happy, and you wouldn't have to watch them. After all, that's what _jealousy_ is.'

Meg screeched loudly in Kally's ear and flung her across the room, right into the shiny suit of armour. However, her plan didn't entirely work out. She had hoped the momentum would let her foot slip out from the Elvis costume and free her. But instead, the material pulled tighter against her leg and flew across the room with her, collapsing on top of her and enveloping her in a sea of sequins and fabric.

'They didn't deserve happiness,' Meg hissed across the room. 'No one does! Everybody has committed crimes! Nobody on this earth deserves to be happy! It's not fair that everybody up here gets to live and sin, while I rot down in the Underworld! Everybody will die one day soon, when my master has risen to power!'

During Meg's tirade, Kally had managed to haul herself out of the pile of costumes and now saw the Fury barrelling towards her at top speed. Kally turned around frantically, grabbing the sword from the clutches of the armour. She faced Meg again, but she didn't see how a sword would help her in that moment. So she turned again and rushed for the beaded door next to the counter.

As Kally had hoped, there was a metal door wide open behind the beads. She slammed it shut behind her and dropped the bolt, stepping away quickly. No sooner had she left the door did it start shaking and reverberating. She heard Meg screaming and yelling profanities behind it. A shrill _screech_ sounded through the room, like nails on a blackboard – or in this case, talons on a metal door.

'Help!' a voice said from behind her. Kally whirled around and saw a strange pair of people in bronze cage.

There were two boys inside. One had long dark hair that looked like it hadn't been cut in a while. He wore dark clothes – jeans and a black t-shirt, with a leather jacket over the top. A black sword sat on the ground beside him. His skin was pale, almost like ivory. A skull shaped ring was on one finger. He looked quite young. He couldn't have been older than thirteen. He gave Kally a cold shiver up her spine, but he seemed vaguely familiar to her.

The other boy was much stranger. He looked slightly older, maybe fifteen? He too had shaggy hair, but with two small protrusions from underneath. Looking closer, she realised they were horns. He wore an orange t-shirt and baggy jeans. Where his feet should have been there were small hooves, like a sheep.

Kally yelped and jumped back a bit.

'What are you?' she demanded, looking at the sheep-boy. Her eyes widened in shock. 'Some sort of sheep/human hybrid?'

The one wearing black supressed a laugh, but the one in orange looked offended.

'I am not a sheep.' He said indignantly. 'I'm a satyr. Half human, half _goat_. Not sheep.'

'Sorry,' Kally mumbled. She nodded her head at the cage. 'What happened to you two?'

'The Fury locked us up,' the sheep-boy (satyr, whatever) said. 'We came in here looking for-'

'A costume for a party,' the boy in black interrupted, rolling his eyes. 'It doesn't matter what we came in here for Grover, it makes no difference to her. The point is Megaera caught us, and now we're stuck.'

'And you want me to help you?' Kally guessed.

'That'd be nice,' the boy in black agreed sarcastically.

Kally had no idea what to do to unlock the cage. She had to help them, but she had a Fury trying to break down the door behind her, and the only thing she had to defend herself with was a hair clip and a sword.

The sword. Kally mentally hit herself in the head. She was so _stupid_. She'd grabbed the sword as she escaped Meg. She could probably use it to break the lock, or maybe even slice through the bars.

'Okay, stand back,' Kally warned.

The boys backed up as best they could to the far corner of the cage, but there wasn't much difference.

Kally lifted the sword and swung it straight into the lock. The force of the collision jarred her bones. Sparks flew from where the blade hit the metal, but the lock stayed closed. The guy in black rolled his eyes.

'That sword's celestial bronze. So is this cage. The metal won't break being used against itself,' he scoffed. 'What kind of demigod doesn't even know that?'

'Demigod?' Kally repeated dumbly. She felt like she should know what that was.

The boy in black's eyes widened. 'You mean, you don't know?'

'Know what?' Kally demanded, getting impatient now. The boy shook his head and ignored her.

'Never mind,' he said. 'Just get us out of here! Possibly without damaging that sword of yours? It might come in handy later on.'

'Well I'd like to see you try,' Kally scoffed. 'You've got a sword, why don't you cut your way out?'

The guy looked at his sword as if just noticing it was there. 'I can't. Stygian iron doesn't work inside here. It's as useless as your celestial bronze.'

'Right. Of course.' Kally muttered. 'Well unless you have a brilliant plan of escape, I can't help you.'

The satyr, Grover, bleated nervously like he really was half goat. He pulled out a tin lid and took a chunk out of it with his teeth.

'Okay, that's gross,' Kally pointed out.

'What? I have a nervous eating disorder, okay?' Grover said defensively. He took another bite so that the lid now resembled a thick paperclip.

An idea struck Kally.

'Satyr!' she said suddenly.

'The name's Grover,' he grumbled.

'Fine, Grover.' She rolled her eyes. 'Hand me that… uh… thing.'

'This?' Grover's face became confused as he handed her the scrap of metal.

'Yes.' She snatched it from his hand and pulled the hair clip out from her sleeve.

Hurriedly, she worked on the lock, fidgeting around with the metal delicately.

'You can pick locks?' the guy in black asked.

'Yeah, it's a handy skill I picked up.'

'Well it's never going to work,' he continued. 'That's lock's enchanted. It's not gonna just open up because you put some metal in-'

_Click_. The lock popped open, and Kally ripped it off the door, letting it swing open. She allowed herself a smug smile at the boy's dumbfounded expression.

'You were saying?' she said, one eyebrow raised.

The boys clambered out of the cage and stood upright. Kally was surprised that they were both taller than she'd thought. Grover stood almost to her neck, and the guy in black was at shoulder height.

'So.' Kally started. 'We have Grover the satyr and the unnamed Goth.'

'Nico,' the Goth guy snapped. 'And I don't see you introducing yourself, Purple Hair!'

Kally had always hated her dark hair. Her mother always said it was lovely, but maybe that's what irritated her. So one day when not long before she ran away, she dyed it deep purple, her mother's least favourite colour. She had no idea why, but the colour never seemed to fade from her hair. Three years later, it still looked at vibrant as when she'd walked out of the bathroom right after setting the dye.

She shot a sneer at Nico. 'It's Kally.'

'Well _Kally_,' Nico stated blandly, 'now that we're out of the cage, what's the next stage in your brilliant plan?'

'Uh, next stage?' Kally repeated sheepishly. 'I didn't really have a "next stage".'

'Oh, well then I guess we'll all just be taken down to Hades with the Fury trying to scratch down that door,' Nico rolled his eyes and gestured to the door that was still shaking from Meg's attempts at breaking through. Kally had completely forgotten about her.

Grover bleated nervously again and started chewing on his own t-shirt.

'Well you come up with a plan then, since you're such a genius,' Kally snapped.

Nico thought for a moment. He pivoted on the spot slowly, scanning the room, and somehow ignoring the banging on the door that was getting louder every second. Suddenly he snapped his fingers.

'I've got it,' he said. He smiled triumphantly and turned to Kally and Grover. 'We go out there, guns blazing, and fight our way through.'

'That's your master plan?' Kally said blandly. She huffed. 'Fine, since no one else seems to have any better ideas, let's go with it. Heck, why not? We'll all probably die anyway.'

Nico ignored her comments and drew his sword, ready to burst into action. Kally lifted her own sword and stood nervously by Nico's side. Grover just kind of stood there chewing a hole in his shirt. They were all about to raise the bar across the door and make a run for it when the banging and screeching suddenly stopped.

Kally looked at Nico, confused. He gave her the same look back and they took the bar off the door. They were about to click it open slowly when they heard voices.

'Master! Why are you so far from home? At this stage you must be-'

A deeper, smoother voice cut Meg off. The man's voice alone sent a shiver up Kally's spine. The air coming in from the crack under the door seemed to be several degrees cooler, and Kally doubted that it was a coincidence. With the chilly air came the stench of wet earth and blood, a combination so sickly it smelled how she imagined a rotting corpse to smell. To Kally, this was the smell of death.

'You disobeyed my orders,' he said, calmly but forcefully. 'I told you the girl was not to be harmed. And my son is not a part of this.'

Nico's eyes widened. He mouthed the words '_my dad_' to Kally. Nico's dad was Meg's master? What relation did he have with Kally's own father?

Kally's head began to throb.

'My deepest apologies master, but I only wanted the satyr. The boy was in the way. I never intended to _harm_ him, of course.'

Nico swung the door open and stepped out.

'Nico what are you doing?' Kally hissed. He was stepping out to his death, surely. But Grover seemed calm about Nico's move. Well, about as calm as he was before anyway.

Now that the door was open, Kally could see the man who had spoken, Nico's father.

His hair was black like Nico's, and slicked back. He wore a dark suit that seemed to have the faces of unfortunate people grimacing sewn into it, like it was made from their despair. His eyes black, but held a flame in the pupils that seemed to flare up at the sight of Nico. A black helmet sat on his head that he wore almost like a crown.

'Father, that's a lie,' Nico told the man, walking up to him unafraid. 'Megaera here said she was going to eat Grover and then me because I was being meddlesome.'

Meg's eyes filled with dread when she saw Nico, but pure hatred flooded them when she spotted Kally behind him.

Nico's dad turned to Meg, his eyes furious.

'You are not to touch my children ever again, do you understand me Megaera?' he raged.

'Yes master,' she whimpered.

'And you will spend a month in the Fields of Punishment doing Alecto's duties,' the man told Meg.

'Yes master,' she replied again, although her eyes pleaded with him, screaming _not fair!_

'Go,' he told her, waving her away.

Meg gave one more angry look at Nico for getting her in trouble, a loathing glare at Kally, and a strange look of longing at Grover. Then she flapped her wings and took off through the front door, taking it off its hinges, screeching furiously until she disappeared into the sky.

'Thanks dad,' Nico said to the man. 'We were about to make a run for it and take our chances.'

'You should know better than to anger her,' his father scolded. 'You know how jealous she is of you.'

'Yes dad,' Nico hung his head.

'Why were you even here?' his father sighed.

Grover spoke up. 'We were here to find another half-blood. I caught the scent of one nearby, and we came in here and then…'

'Yes I know the rest satyr,' the man interrupted. Then he turned to Kally for the first time. His eyes hardened. 'And is this the half-blood you came for?'

'We're not sure, sir,' Grover told him. 'But she definitely is. We'll take her to camp with us now.'

The man's eyes did not move from Kally. He seemed almost reluctant to let her go, but he nodded slightly and said, 'Yes, she should go to camp. Take her there, where she will be safe.'

Then the man turned back to Nico, put his hand on his shoulder, and vanished into smoke.

Nico seemed unfazed by this event, and Grover seemed used to it at least, although it seemed to still freak him out.

'Nico what the hell just happened?' Kally demanded.

'I'll explain everything on the way to camp,' he promised. 'Now come on. Just because my dad told her to keep away doesn't mean she'll keep her word.'

'Where are you taking me?' Kally asked, afraid of the answer.

'The only place that's safe for us,' Nico said. 'Camp Half-Blood.'


	4. Chapter 4

It never failed to astound Kally how much fate intervened in people's lives.

For her, meeting Clarisse and Chris three years ago had been fate. It had given her hope that maybe all the monsters that came for her were real, and she wasn't going crazy. It meant there might be people like her. It meant there might be a place she could go to that would be safe and would be her home.

As time went on, however, it seemed less and less likely that Clarisse would come back for her. Every day that passed without a glimpse of that warrior girl took her further away from this fantastical place in her mind. Eventually, it had just become a memory, her last image of the strange pair became one of them disappearing in a New York taxi.

But now she was doing the same thing, sitting in a cab on the plastic coated seats, heading towards the unknown destination; Camp Half-Blood.

Grover and Nico sat to her right as she stared out the window at the passing city. They had started to babble about monsters and gods and Furies and god only knew what else, but Kally had told them to be quiet. She needed to piece things together for herself.

After half an hour's silence, she slowly turned to face the strange boys. She took a calming breath and began.

'So first of all, everything is real.' She started. 'All the Greek myths, the gods, they're all real.'

She turned to Grover. 'You're a satyr. Which is some sort of goat-human hybrid that protects demigods,' she said. Grover nodded, and she turned to Nico. 'Which is what you are.'

Nico nodded his head gradually. 'Half mortal, half god.'

Kally shot him a look, reminding him that he wasn't meant to say anything yet.

'Your father is Hades, god of the Underworld, and Meg is a Fury that does his bidding.' She continued in a slow drawl. Her head still spun from all the new information. 'You're now taking me to a camp full of people like you, demigods or whatever, because you think I'm one too.'

She gave the boys a nervous look that told them they were allowed to speak now. Nico spoke first.

'Yes.'

That was it. No _I know it's hard to believe_ or _this must be so difficult for you to wrap your head around_. Just one word that confirmed all of Kally's suspicions.

She wrapped her arms protectively around her chest like she was hoping it would make her feel safer and less confused. She drew a ragged breath.

'Well, you're wrong,' she told them. 'I'm not half-god or whatever.'

'How do you know?' Grover asked. 'Have you ever met your mom? Or your dad? Whichever you live without.'

'I never said I lived without a parent.' Kally stiffened, sitting up suspiciously.

'All demigods only have one parent,' Grover said. 'I mean, it's not like the gods live with their kids. They'd have to be in a lot of places at once to keep up with every single kid of theirs, let me tell you.'

Kally sat motionless on the seat. She held back an amused smile. The thought that her bookish, quiet father could be a god made her want to laugh. The thought of her self-absorbed mother being a goddess just made her want to weep for the other supposed Greek gods.

'Well let _me_ tell _you_ something,' Kally said. 'I lived with both my mom and my dad. And let me assure you, they are very mortal.'

Grover and Nico looked at each other, perplexed. The smug smile that had almost been on Nico's lips twitched and faded. Obviously they hadn't counted on this.

The trio spent the rest of the taxi ride in silence. The boys simply stared at each other, trying to have a silent conversation about what it all meant. Kally preferred to lean her head against the window and watch New York disappear behind her.

She'd never thought that leaving it behind would be so hard. But as the last of the buildings disappeared and never-ending woods took its place, a tear made its way from the corner of her eye and down her cheek. It spilled onto her leg, creating a dark spot on her jeans. She stared at it curiously, touching her hand to her wet cheek in surprise. Never since the first night she left home had she cried, not in three years.

Kally had never left New York, except to go to parties that her mom had been forced to drag her to. Penelope's agent, a young, stern woman by the name of Tess Saunders, was always on her back about getting the "family angle" in the press. All she remembered from the parties – they all blurred together after a while – was smiling for the cameras and tolerating her mother's forged affection for the evening. Tess had wanted to include Colton, Kally's younger brother, in the publicity as well, but Kally had refused to have him subjected to the paparazzi.

Kally had always been an over-protective big sister of Colton. She never let anyone pick on him or try to hurt him. People were afraid of her, so it made it easy to be intimidating to the boys that would try and tease him at school. All it would take was a word from Colton and somebody would wind up in a trash can or hanging by their undies from a locker. This gave people enough of a reason to keep away from the both of them.

On the negative side, she scared away all his friends too. So they both went through school being friendless losers and outcasts. Colton never truly forgave her for keeping everybody away.

Her thoughts travelled to Colton himself. He would be at home now, with their mom and dad. He'd be eating dinner, or freaking out to their parents about starting his sophomore year after the summer.

She missed her brother. For thirteen years of her life, she'd been there to clear the way for him. How would he be coping without her for three years? Had he cast her off? Did he miss her like she missed him? As bad as she felt about leaving her dad behind, she felt far worse about leaving Colton.

The taxi slammed on the brakes. Kally's head hit the driver's headrest and then crashed back into her own. She turned her head tenderly to face Nico and Grover, who were similarly injured.

'What happened?' Kally questioned.

'We're here,' Nico responded, rubbing the back of his neck.

They exited the cab and Grover paid the driver. The man seemed unsure about leaving three kids alone on the edge of a deserted wood alone, but he perked up a bit when Grover handed him a rather large tip. He sped off into the distance, unhappy that one of the bills had a few bite marks on the corners.

The group stood at the base of a hill. A magnificent pine tree stood at the top, tall and proud. Something shone bright gold in the moonlight hanging from a low branch on the tree. What seemed to be a massive pile of electric chords wrapped around the base of it like a scarf.

'So where is it?' Kally asked, breaking the silence of the night.

Grover turned to her. 'Over the hill, just past the pine tree there.'

They began to walk up the steep incline. By the time they reached the top, Kally was nearly out of breath. She stood next to the pine tree trying to breathe properly. She sat down by the coiled chords and leaned on them.

When they started shifting, she jumped into the air and let out a shrill yelp. She moved back to Grover's side and clutched at his arm.

'Those just moved.'

'Those?' he repeated. 'That's the dragon that guards the fleece.'

'Fleece? What fl- _wait what do you mean that's a dragon?_' Kally shrieked.

Suddenly the creature stood up on its hind legs. It wasn't overly large, for a dragon. Maybe twelve feet tall. His teeth were sharp like daggers and his nostrils had wisps of smoke pouring from them, like they could catch fire any second. Kally suspected this was exactly the case.

She stood in awed silence for a moment. 'That's a dragon.'

'Yeah, and a real softie at that,' Nico interjected, stepping forward. He told the beast to lie back down and he obeyed lazily, thumping back to the ground for a nap. 'Easy. Let's keep going.'

'Keep going? Keep going where?' Kally demanded. Over the hill she saw nothing but a vast expanse of hills. She made up her mind right there that if Nico was proposing more hiking then she would walk all the way back to New York herself.

'To Camp,' Grover replied, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. 'It's just here.'

'I don't see it.'

Nico stepped towards Kally and said gently, 'Take a few steps forward, to the other side of the tree.'

Kally did as she was told, and stepped forward once, twice, a third time. And then her eyes were filled with a wondrous sight in a completely new setting.

She was undoubtedly looking at Long Island Sound, where just a moment ago had been nothing but mountains. Open fields full of orchards of some kind that she couldn't make out from her viewpoint covered a vast expanse of the area. A country farm house stood nearby the fields, lights on in a few of the downstairs windows.

She saw a glistening lake in the pale moonlight, and buildings that looked like they had been plucked right from ancient Greece were nestled into the sides of the hills. One in particular was lit up brightly, and even from here she could see it full of young people laughing and talking merrily. A strange assortment of mismatching buildings was off to the side in the shape of an omega.

Grover smiled contentedly. 'Welcome home Kally.'


	5. Chapter 5

Camp Half-Blood was a strange place.

Kally had never imagined, even with all the monsters she had encountered, that she would see a bonfire that changed colour, seemingly with her mood, with a small girl crouched by it warming herself contentedly. She never thought she'd see a horse with wings, a pegasus Grover called it. And she certainly never dreamed that she'd look into a lake and see pretty female faces smiling back up at her.

Grover and Nico headed straight for the farmhouse by the fields of what she now could see were strawberries. Up close, Kally could see the farmhouse was a faded blue, with a wraparound deck. Steps led to the front door which was wide open, a soft light glowing from the entrance.

Grover walked inside without hesitation, smiling giddily and bleating once or twice. Kally stared after him with a strange look on her face.

'He's just glad to be home,' Nico told her. Kally jumped a little. She had almost forgotten he was there.

It was spooky how he seemed to just be able to vanish into the shadows and then appear from them again like he was made from them. Being a son of Hades, Kally guessed he probably could.

'This is home for him?' Kally asked.

Nico nodded. 'It is for a few people. Most people choose to go home after the summer to their families. But some people don't have that option, or choose not to go if they do. Grover lives here, along with a few other satyrs. He's been a long time, longer than me, longer than almost anyone.'

'How old is he?' Kally asked, bewildered.

She had seen teenagers that looked at least seventeen when they walked past one of the ancient Greek structures that Grover had identified as the dining hall. Kally had peered in and seen girls and boys of all ages sitting at random all through the open room, laughing and talking joyously. As she had gone to leave, she nearly tripped on a crack in the ground that looked as though it wasn't meant to be there. Nico went rigid and told her to keep up, moving on.

'He's thirty-two I think,' Nico responded absently, oblivious to Kally's spluttering. 'He's quite attached to this place. Even has a girlfriend.'

Despite the fact that she'd just learned that Grover was in his thirties, the new that he had a girlfriend was even more out of nowhere.

'Grover has a girlfriend?'

Nico smiled knowingly. 'Yeah. One of the tree nymphs, Juniper.'

Kally paused and said sarcastically, 'So the goat-boy is thirty-two and has a girlfriend who's part tree?'

Nico nodded again. 'That about sums it up.' Kally shook her head in astonishment and asked Nico what to do next. 'Head inside I guess.' He shrugged. 'I'm sure Chiron will want to talk to you.'

'Chiron?' she repeated.

'Yeah. He's… well, you'll see.' Nico waved her off, turning for the dining pavilion. 'I'll see you at the campfire.'

Kally watched him run off into the darkness towards the bonfire in the distance until she could only see a small outline. Then she turned and marched inside.

The interior was stranger than she imagined. A leopard print rug lay across the wooden floor. Strange vines with small buds on them grew wildly over the walls like ivy. Different animal prints covered the walls, and a leopard head was mounted over a door nearby. A fire crackled in the fireplace beside a table with three people surrounding it. Well, perhaps people was a bit too strong a word.

The first was Grover, in his orange t-shirt and jeans that covered his furry hindquarters. He turned and smiled grimly at her, making his scraggly goatee twitch.

Another man, short and round, wearing a Hawaiian print shirt with leopards on it stood next to Grover. He did not look up at Kally, but instead groaned and shook his head, making his thick black curls bounce.

At the end of the table stood a creature that Kally had initially mistaken for a white horse. Looking properly, she realised that the creature was only a horse from the waist down; above that was a human male in his late forties with thinning gray hair and a matching beard.

The horse-human's face looked up and smiled kindly at Kally as she entered the room and moved towards her, putting a restraining hand on Grover's shoulder as he passed.

'Welcome,' the man said sincerely, 'to Camp Half-Blood. Grover tells me your name is Kally, yes?'

'Uh,' Kally managed. 'Um, yeah. Kally. That's me.'

'I see,' he said. 'I am Chiron, a teacher and a mentor here at Camp Half-Blood.'

'Uh, hi.'

_Wow Kally. You're meeting a guy who's half horse and all wise and stuff and you say hi? Well done._

'This is our camp director, Mr D,' Chiron told her, gesturing to the chubby guy still glaring at the table, sipping from a goblet. He didn't even look up to acknowledge her, and Kally did not attempt to acknowledge him either. Chiron sighed.

'May I ask your surname?' he said.

'Anastas. Kally Anastas.'

Her immediate response when someone asked for her last name. She had always preferred to keep her mother's maiden name, so as not to let people know that they were related. It always confused her teachers when they had to call out "Kally Anastas and Colton Hark" when they knew that the two were siblings.

'And who are your parents, do you know?' Chiron continued.

'Yeah, my dad's name is Graham Hark,' she told him. He nodded, waiting for her mother's name. She sighed and said, 'And my mom's Penelope Hark.'

'Woah, like, as in the model Penelope Hark?' Grover cried, awed.

Kally cringed. This was exactly what she hated about telling people who her mother was – the part where they go all goo-goo eyed for her, saying how lucky she was to have Penelope as a mother, and forget that Kally was just a kid who didn't get on with her mom.

'Yes.' She snapped, perhaps a little too harshly. Grover receded like a puppy that had just been scolded.

'It is interesting that you do not have your parents' surname.' Chiron mused.

'My mom had me before they got married, so I was born under her maiden name.' Kally explained. 'They got married two years later, and she took my dad's last name, but I didn't.'

'Interesting.' Chiron said again, stroking his beard, his arm folded across his chest. 'But is it the true version of events?'

Kally frowned, confused. 'I… I don't know what you mean.'

'Is there any proof of your parents being together before they married?' Chiron said, getting straight to the point. 'Is it possible that perhaps your mother has told you a lie about your father, or vice versa?'

'You think my mom was having an affair?' Kally demanded angrily.

She knew she ought to be polite to Chiron, him being so much wiser and all, but underlying the hatred was a wall of defensiveness over her mother that she had accumulated over the years. She'd never thought the defensiveness could be used in _protection_ of her mother.

'Of course not,' Chiron said gently, his eyes smiling kindly. 'I simply meant that perhaps the length of time that your parents have been together may be a slight… fabrication.'

'So you think they lied to me?'

Kally was trying her hardest to understand what Chiron was trying to tell her. Though she had just met him, there was something in his thoughtful eyes that told her he was trustworthy. Already, she had begun to respect him.

'To put it bluntly, yes.' Chiron stepped back to where Grover stood, hi eye nervously twitching towards the chubby black haired guy.

'Why,' Kally asked, 'would you think that? What would they have to hide?'

'Perhaps, they may have been hiding your true parentage.' Chiron said grimly.

'My _true_ parentage?' Kally repeated. 'That would imply that all my life I've been living under the falsehood that my family was really my family.'

'It seems that way,' Chiron nodded. 'You see Kally; I believe that one of your parents may be a god or a goddess.'

'Yeah, so did Grover and Nico, but I told them the same thing I told you,' Kally ranted. 'Both my parents are my parents, and my brother is my brother. My family is my family. And they are all completely mortal.'

'Is that so?' Chiron enquired. 'Tell me then Kally, does this mean you do not believe Grover and Nico about the Greek gods?'

She thought for a moment. Looking back over her last three years, she was sure anything was possible. But the Greek gods from ancient legend? That seemed just a little too far-fetched. 'No, I don't.'

'Well then, would you please explain what circumstances arose that required you to come here tonight Kally?' Chiron asked, his voice gentle, like he was trying not scare her off.

'Didn't Grover tell you what happened?' Kally wondered, glancing at the satyr. Before he could speak, the dark haired guy, Mr D, spoke up roughly.

'Mr Underwood only has part of the story I'm afraid,' he grumbled. 'He was stuck in a cage for most of it, or else was eating anything he could get his teeth into – including his own shirt it seems. So we don't really have a clear idea of what happened.'

'Does it matter?' Kally said crudely to the man. She had an immediate dislike towards him for some reason.

He whirled around and his eyes lit up like Hades's had earlier in Meg's store. He growled out, 'Of course it matters. We need to know why Hades sent a Fury out to kill you. Unless you want to be bat food, then by all means keep your mouth shut.'

'Meg wasn't sent to kill me.' Kally found herself saying.

'Meg?' the dark-haired guy repeated. 'Who's Meg?'

'The Fury.' Kally explained. 'Megaera. Fury of jealousy. She wasn't sent to kill me.'

'She did attempt to though,' Chiron said gently.

'Yeah, because she thought I was pretty or something.' Kally scoffed.

'Ah,' he said. 'Jealousy is a very demeaning and petty thing, and yet all mortals are inflicted with it, immortals even more so. If you don't mind me saying, Mr D.'

Chiron turned to Mr D as if asking his approval. He grunted in reply and turned back to his goblet and glaring at the table. Chiron sighed again.

'This Fury, Megaera you call her? She has always been jealous of great beauty,' he said slowly. 'And she has never been able to resist the urge to remove that beauty from existence, even when under orders not to. You could say it is her Achilles' heel.'

Kally had always been aware of the fact that she was beautiful. Growing up looking like a double of her model mother it was sort of impossible to deny. But she had always loathed the fact. She hated seeing boys stare at her as if she were an object rather than a person. She hated knowing that people treated her differently just because she looked good. In her eyes, beauty was not a gift, but a curse, and Meg attacking her because of it only reinforced this idea in her mind.

'Is that why she's jealous of Nico?' Kally asked.

She hadn't really thought about it before but Hades had said that Meg was very jealous of Nico. He was attractive enough, she supposed, but surely that couldn't be the sole reason Meg was jealous.

'No.' Chiron said, confirming her thoughts. 'She is jealous of Nico because he is so close to his father, Hades. The Furies have always been Hades' closest lieutenants. But now that Nico is in the picture…'

'She wants him out.' Kally finished. Chiron nodded sadly. 'But she can't touch him because she knows Hades will kill her.'

'Well, I don't believe even Hades could kill the Furies entirely.' Chiron remarked. 'Perhaps he would send them to Tartarus, but it is not within anybody's power to eradicate the Furies completely.'

Mr D grunted and looked up from the table. He seemed annoyed at something. Probably Kally's mere existence.

'Look, it doesn't matter about the bloody bats,' he grumbled. He turned to Kally and pointed a plump finger at her. 'The issue is, who is your godly parent, and how to get you to believe it's all true.'

'I don't know what would make me believe it,' Kally narrowed her eyes at Mr D. 'But I know there's nothing you can do to assist in the process of my belief, _director_.'

The breath that Grover sucked in was audible. Even Chiron froze and watched Mr D carefully for his reaction. Mr D's eyes burned again, and as he stepped towards her he seemed to grow to be several feet taller than her.

'Oh?' he said, eerily calm despite his aggressive body language. 'Is that so? Well, have you ever stopped to wonder about what "Mr D" stands for? Look around you. Use your brain, if you have one. Do you know anything about Greek "mythology"? _Think!_'

Kally glared defiantly up at him. (It unnerved her that he had been a head shorter than her before, but that know she had to lift her nose to see into his fiery eyes.) She didn't want to do anything this guy told her to do. But hearing Mr D's question of what his name stood for made her curious.

For the same unknown reason that she had listened to Meg in her store, she listened to Mr D now.

She moved around him and glanced at her surroundings. Vines all over the walls, the leopard print everywhere, the goblet half full of what looked like a deep red wine. She asked him what the liquid was, hoping it wasn't blood.

'Diet Coke,' Mr D replied, his arms folded against his chest.

She continued with her search of the room, but found nothing of interest. She pieced together what she knew and came up with the only plausible explanation she could conjure up.

'A-are you… Dionysus?' Kally said, feeling stupid for even asking. 'The god of wine, right?'

'Oh congratulations, the girl does have a brain.' He turned to Chiron with a wearisome look on his face, and then wheeled around to face Kally again. 'I would advise you not to go throwing around names Katherine.'

'Kally.' She snapped.

'That's what I said Kate.' Mr D replied. He turned to Chiron again. 'I'm going to the campfire for sing-alongs,' he said, without enthusiasm. 'Send her out when you've got something useful.'

And then he strode out of the house without glancing back at Kally. Grover bleated nervously.

'You shouldn't have made him mad,' he said.

'He irritates me,' she told him.

'There's a boy here a lot like you,' Chiron said, a smile in his eyes. 'He doesn't much like our director either. Perhaps you'll meet him at the campfire. But first,' his eyes went dark again, 'I need you to tell me everything that has happened right up until you got here. Starting from your childhood would be excellent.'

Kally told him everything. She described her childhood, her relationship with her parents and her brother. She expressed her hatred for school, and her adoration of her father. The problems with her mother were difficult to talk about without getting mad all over again, but she made it through the runaway. The rest was just her life on the streets and all the strange creatures she'd seen.

She considered telling Chiron about seeing Clarisse and Chris three years ago. If this was the camp they had mentioned, they may still be here. But the memory was somewhat private to her. So she kept their encounter with each other and Panos the Laistrygonian to herself.

The final part was the fight in Meg's shop. Grover interjected little bits from his perspective from time to time, but mostly he stayed quiet. Eventually Kally had told him everything there was to tell, and they all sat there in an eerie silence while Chiron studied her.

'Well,' his intense gaze let up, and Kally felt it was okay to breathe again, 'that was very insightful. I have much to think about. Grover, if you could please escort Miss Anastas to the campfire? I'm sure there is still some songs going on that she can enjoy.'

Grover nodded and walked toward the door, gesturing for Kally to follow. She turned to look at the white-backed centaur (she'd come to realise what he was during her contemplation of Dionysus) and then followed Grover out of the house.

'So,' Grover said, his voice quiet in the night, 'do you believe it all yet?'

'I think,' Kally said slowly, trying not to let her sudden exhaustion show, 'that I would be a fool not to. And I do not consider myself a fool Grover Underwood.'


	6. Chapter 6

It turned out the campfire really did change colour with people's mood. As Kally and Grover approached it, the flame was a happy yellow. Upon their arrival, however, it faded to dull beige. A neutral colour to match a neutral mood.

Kally felt all eyes on her as she walked past the campers. She thought that was a bit strange, seeing as she was walking with someone who was half-goat. Then again, the campers here were probably used to satyrs, whereas Kally was all new to them.

The music, provided by only a few of the campers on guitars, lyres, and pan-pipes, played quietly in the background.

Kally kept her eyes low to the ground. She skirted around campers, following Grover through the crowd to a log with only three people on it – a red headed girl, and a bond girl cuddled up to a dark haired boy.

The red-head stared into the flames that now matched her hair. The boy was murmuring quietly to the girl next to him and smiling. But the blond was looking directly at Kally. Her gaze was not hostile, nor was it friendly. It was more of an analysis than anything. Kally decided that it might be a territorial thing, kind of like with dogs. She knew in these situations you had to keep your eye contact and not back down. So she stared right back at the blond until she moved her eyes away.

It crossed Kally's mind that she had been out of touch with people for _way_ too long.

'Grover!' The boy's smile lit up his face as the satyr approached him. He gestured for Grover to sit down on his other side. 'Hey, it seems like it's been forever man.'

'Yeah,' Grover agreed, taking his seat. 'You've been gone for too long Perce.'

The boy laughed. 'Actually I think you'll find it's you who's been away.'

'Hey I live here,' Grover countered. 'You're the one who disappears every year.'

The boy nodded in a _fair enough_ type way. He suddenly noticed Kally was standing there awkwardly. 'Grover?'

'Hm?'

'Who's this?' he asked.

Grover looked up, as if suddenly remembering Kally was there. 'Oh yeah. Guys, this is Kally. She's new here.'

'Well obviously she's new, Grover,' the blond interjected. 'If she wasn't we'd probably know who she was, wouldn't we?'

The red-head laughed and the blond grinned at her.

'Yeah whatever Annabeth,' Grover grumbled. 'Anyway, her name's Kally.'

'Hi,' Kally mumbled, still looking at her feet. The red-head smiled kindly and patted the space between her and the blond, Annabeth.

'Come sit,' she said.

Kally sat obediently. Like a dog.

_Get your head away from dogs, these are people, Kally_, she told herself.

'So do I get to know your names as well, or this like a one way deal?' Kally asked.

'Right, of course,' Annabeth said, flustered. 'I'm Annabeth, and that's Rachel, and Percy.'

'Cool.' Kally lacked anything else to say.

After a moment's awkward silence, Annabeth spoke again. 'So do you know who your godly parent is Kally?'

'No.' Kally replied curtly. After another moment she added, 'I don't believe I have one.'

Percy and Annabeth turned to stare at her. Grover looked at Kally awkwardly and then excused himself to the woods nervously. Probably going to see his tree-girlfriend or something.

'If you don't have a godly parent,' Percy said, 'then why are you here?'

'You don't have to have to be a demigod to be here Percy,' Rachel said dismissively. 'I mean, I'm here aren't I?'

'Yeah but you're different,' Percy dismissed her.

'So you're not a demigod or whatever?' Kally asked.

'No.' Rachel smiled proudly. 'I am currently the Oracle.'

'The Oracle?' Kally repeated.

'Well, yeah.' Rachel responded. 'I hold the spirit of the Oracle Delphi. So she kind of speaks through me sometimes. Basically I give out prophecies and see the future and stuff.'

'So you're like a psychic?'

Rachel turned her nose up indignantly. 'I am _not_ some sideshow attraction. I am an Oracle.'

After that Rachel didn't seem to want to speak to Kally anymore. She mumbled something about a cave before wandering off into the gloom.

'So if you're not a half-blood, why _are_ you here?' Percy asked, after a short pause.

Kally thought about it, but she didn't have an answer. Grover and Nico wouldn't have taken her here unless they truly believed she was a demigod. But her parents were most definitely mortal. She couldn't be a half-blood.

She refused to think about Chiron's suggestion that perhaps her mother was lying to her about her father. But she told Percy about what he had said anyway.

He listened patiently, nodding politely now and then, but trying not to wake the now sleeping Annabeth on his shoulder. At the end of her monologue, Percy thought for a bit.

'From what I can gather about you,' he said, 'I would think it was your father that was lying.'

'What?' Kally said. 'Why?'

'Don't let Annabeth know I said this,' he whispered, like Annabeth could hear him in her subconscious. 'But I think you could easily be a daughter of Aphrodite.'

Aphrodite? The goddess of love? From what she remembered, Kally knew she was inconceivably beautiful, and so were her children. Men dropped at her feet and begged for her. She was an idol to all women in her time. However, her children were also known to be vain, conceited, manipulative, and vindictive. Kally wasn't like that. She never used her looks to get what she wanted.

'Thanks,' she told Percy anyway. It was meant to be a compliment. 'But I'd rather not be.'

Silence took the place of conversation. They sat listening to the laughter of the remaining campers and the occasional cracks from the fire.

'Is Kally short for anything?' Percy said suddenly. 'It seems like an incomplete name.'

'Is Percy short for anything?' she shot right back.

'Perseus,' he grinned a goofy lop-sided smile. 'Greek hero. Son of Zeus originally. Famously cut off Medusa's head. It's a bit of an old joke now.' He laughed lightly.

'Why?' Kally asked jokingly. 'You slay Medusa recently?'

'Well, if you call five years ago recently, then yeah.' His self-satisfactory grin made her somehow believe him. 'But you didn't answer my question.'

Kally looked at him. She sighed and turned back to the dying campfire. 'Yes. Kally is shortened.'

'What's it short for?' Percy asked again.

'Kalypso,' she admitted. At first she mistook Percy's silence for curiosity. But when she glanced up at him, his sea-green eyes were locked on her and wide open, incredulous.

'I know right,' she rolled her eyes. 'You probably know the story. Some sea princess or something, banished to an island. She has some magic powers that lure men in to keep them with her. Pathetic right?'

Percy's gaze became almost offended. His eyes welled up and he peered down at the sleeping Annabeth, as if he needed to remember she was there.

'I know the story.' He said abruptly. 'And you're wrong.'

'What do you mean I'm wrong?' she demanded. 'I think I'd know the story of my own namesake. You act like it's a personal issue.'

'It is.' He snapped. Annabeth stirred, and Percy rubbed her hand soothingly until she went back to sleep. He continued in a low hiss. 'Look, you don't know anything about Calypso. Don't you say a bad word about her. She doesn't lure men, she's cursed to always find men that she can't help but fall in love with. And they all leave her. So don't you tell me she's some sort of sorceress, because you're wrong.'

Kally was taken aback. The emotion behind his voice stabbed her in a much more real way than any sword ever could. She wondered what could possibly stir him like that. Obviously he knew Calypso – well, the original Calypso – and had some pretty intense feelings for her.

She decided it would be best to leave it alone, whatever the case.

'I'm sorry,' she said quietly. 'I didn't mean to… insult her or anything.'

'I know.' Percy said, waving his hand dismissively. 'I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped. It's just… She's not like they make her out to be. You know, in the stories.'

'Yeah.'

They sat in comfortable silence for a while longer. Then Percy spoke again.

'I should probably take her off to her cabin.' He nodded his head towards the unconscious Annabeth slumped against him. 'Do you know where to go to get to your cabin?'

'I don't have one.' Kally replied.

'You'll be in with the Hermes cabin then,' he told her. He began lifting Annabeth into his arms and stood up, her arms wrapped around his neck. He was taller than Kally had first thought, and much lankier. 'Ask around for the Stoll brothers, Connor and Travis. They're head counsellors of cabin eleven, the Hermes cabin. They'll help you out.'

'Okay. Thanks Percy,' she said. He smiled weakly and vanished into the darkness with Annabeth cradled in his arms.

Kally glanced around at the remaining campers. A pretty Asian girl sat surrounded by a group of equally pretty girls, all giggling. Kally immediately decided not to approach that group. Another group were all slumped against the ground and each other, snoring lightly. A couple of boys were mucking around on a patch of grass nearby.

One tall girl sat fiddling with a scrap of metal in her hands. As Kally watched it unfolded wings and fluttered from the girl's hands. This seemed pretty amazing to Kally, as before it had been a few pieces of scrap. But the girl frowned, snatched it from the air, and immediately began tinkering again.

She decided to ask the only reasonably quiet person sitting by the fading fire. He was a tall, skinny kid with dark hair and a pale complexion. He seemed vaguely familiar from across the fire. As she stepped around, she saw why.

In the dim light, the slim features all filled in. She could not escape the piercing brown eyes that locked on her now. Eyes that had once been crazed and unseeing.

'Hey. Are you new?' Chris said cheerfully.

Kally nodded mutely, not knowing what to say. _I saw you three years ago, except you were crazy and couldn't even support your own body weight!_

'Cool.' He smiled kindly. 'Do you want to sit?'

She nodded again and sat beside him, still staring at the boy that she knew to be crazy. She couldn't reconcile this healthy, happy guy to the boy she'd seen three years ago in that alleyway.

'So, do you have a name?' Chris asked. He laughed. 'Or a voice?'

Kally managed to choke out a response. 'Uh, yeah. Kally. Kally Anastas.'

'Awesome. I'm Chris. Rodriguez.' He told her.

Kally fought the urge to say _I know_.

'Percy.' She said instead. Chris gave her a funny look. 'Uh, he told me to find the Stoll brothers. He said they could take me to cabin eleven.'

'Oh,' Chris smirked. 'You don't need those two clowns. Just because they're head counsellors doesn't mean they're the only ones who can do things for the cabin.' He stood and bowed with a flourish of his hand. 'I am Chris Rodriguez, son of Hermes, and member of cabin eleven.'

Kally giggled and took his offer of a hand up. 'Allow me to escort you to cabin eleven.'

They walked in a happy silence down a path worn into the grass. Chris didn't seem to need the indented ground to guide him however, as he stepped off the path after a few moments.

As they walked, they talked. Chris made a lot of jokes that mostly made Kally laugh like a maniac. And then there were the cheesy jokes that just made her grimace and give him a gentle shove.

'Come on,' he grinned. 'That one was at least worth a chuckle.'

Kally tried to give him a stern look, but she almost immediately cracked up and laughed again. He beamed at her response.

Almost too quickly, they approached the cluster of mismatching buildings shaped in an omega that Kally had seen when she first arrived.

'These are the cabins?' she asked.

Chris nodded. He raised his arm and pointed to a regular looking log cabin that seemed like it had wanted to retire from its duties years ago. A symbol hung over the door, like you'd see at hospitals – a staff with two snakes wrapped around it. A caduceus it was called. 'And that's home.'

'That's cabin eleven?' Kally's eyes widened. 'It looks like it'd fall apart in a gentle breeze.'

'Granted it's a bit… _aged_, but it's just as sturdy as it ever was.' Chris seemed almost proud of the run-down lodge. 'Anyway, we should go inside.'

While the outside of cabin eleven had looked dreary, inside it was a bustling hub for kids of all ages. A small boy tripped over his own feet on his way to one of the bunks and almost went headfirst into a pile of junk at the end of someone's bed. Two older boys, twins they looked like, were arguing with one of the girls. She seemed frustrated but the boys couldn't keep a straight face. Another girl emerged from behind a bunk with a hairbrush trapped in her hair, crying out angrily at someone called Travis.

It was absolute chaos. Kally couldn't hear herself think over the din of thirty people all shouting at one another. Chris just seemed amused.

'Welcome to cabin eleven,' he said in her ear. Then he stepped forward and called for quiet. Immediately the noise receded. 'Everyone, this is Kally Anastas. She's been assigned with cabin eleven, so be nice guys.'

The two twin-like boys tripped over themselves trying to reach Kally first. She saw now that they were not quite twins. One was taller and slimmer. The other had the lightest and tiniest sprinkling of freckles across his cheekbones.

The shorter one spoke first. 'Hi. I'm Connor Stoll, head counsellor of the Hermes cabin.' He winked at Kally.

'Co-head counsellor,' the taller brother corrected. 'I'm Travis. The _older_ Stoll. If you need anything, please don't hesitate to ask me.'

The girl with the hairbrush in her hair rolled her eyes and scoffed. 'Give it up Trav. She's way out of your league.' Connor smirked but hairbrush-girl turned to him and said, 'You too Connor. Both of you just lay off.'

She tramped over to Kally and hooked her arm through hers. 'Are you regular or undetermined?' she asked. Kally blinked blankly. The girl rolled her eyes again. 'Is Hermes you dad or not?'

'I don't think so. I'm not sure.' Kally responded.

'Right,' the girl said. 'Undetermined. Just like me. We'll be great friends.'

Kally smiled at her. 'Um, where do I sleep? I don't think there's room for a dog to sleep in here, let alone me.'

'Cabin eleven!' The girl cried. 'Is there any spare bunks or beds anywhere for Kally?'

A space was found for her. She dropped her backpack by the end of the bed and her newly acquired sword on the sheets. She sat on the bed as the chaos resumed and took a deep breath. Chris approached her and sat down beside her.

'You okay?' he asked. His brown eyes were concerned.

'I… I'm just gonna get some air.' Kally stood and strode outside, sitting down on the porch steps. It wasn't long before Chris re-joined her. He sighed a little.

'What's wrong?'

'Nothing.' Kally replied. 'Is it always that busy in there?'

'Pretty much,' Chris chuckled. 'We accept anyone that doesn't know who their godly parent is, or "undetermined" as we call them here. So it's always pretty full. Used to be way worse. Before Percy made the deal.'

'What deal?'

'The deal with the gods that they had to claim their kids by age thirteen and that the minor gods be represented here as well.' Percy sounded like a pretty good guy from what people said about him. 'There used to only be twelve cabins, ending with Mr D's cabin. Now there are twenty of them.'

'That must be better for you guys,' Kally noted.

Chris nodded thoughtfully. 'We don't get as many undetermined kids anymore. There's still a few of them – like you and Kelsey back there. But nowhere near as many as there used to be.'

Kally stared at her feet.

'Okay I know something's bothering you,' he said. 'Spit it out.'

'I'm fine.' Chris gave her a disbelieving look. 'Okay well… I just… I've never had a family. Everyone seems so close. I feel like I'm intruding.'

'Don't worry about it.' Chris brushed aside her concerns. 'Everyone feels like that for a while. But you'll become one of us soon Kally. I promise.'

He put his arm around her comfortingly and pulled her into a hug. Kally, for once, did not resist. She needed a hug after everything she'd been through today. Only when Chris moved to pull away did Kally start to cry. He held her until she managed to sob out some words.

'I-I-I'm s-sorry,' she sniffled. 'I don't know w-why I'm c-crying really.'

'It's okay.' He patted her back comfortingly.

Kally couldn't hide the truth from him any longer. She broke down and told him about her encounter with him and Clarisse three years ago, and how he'd been so mentally disoriented that he couldn't even support himself. Chris bowed his head and sighed.

'Yeah,' he said. 'I know. Clarisse told me about how, uh… irrational I was. But she never said anything about meeting you. Not to anybody here. If she did, we certainly would have sent someone for you a long time ago, just like she promised.'

'It doesn't make sense why she wouldn't say anything,' Kally said, frustrated. 'She promised me a better life. She promised me a family, and a home. She lied to me.'

'Look, I'll talk to her tomorrow, okay?' Chris said. Kally stopped.

'Wait,' she said, putting a hand up. 'She's _here_? At Camp Half-Blood? Right now?'

'Yeah.' Chris said, like it was obvious. In hindsight, it probably should have been. 'She's in her cabin – number five. The Ares cabin.'

Kally didn't know whether to be glad she could see Clarisse again and finally get answers, or whether to be furious that she hadn't received them from her before now.

'Why don't we go see her now?' Kally stood, gesturing to the cluster of cabins. 'We could demand answers!'

'It's past curfew,' Chris said. 'The harpies are out. And they _will_ eat us if they catch us.'

Kally didn't bother asking about it. She'd decided to just run with whatever people said.

'Fine, we'll go in the morning.' Kally said.

'As soon as lessons are finished,' Chris promised.

'Lessons?' Kally repeated.

'Oh boy,' Chris grinned. 'You're gonna have a lot of fun tomorrow.'


	7. Chapter 7

At Camp Half-Blood, "lessons" were synonymous with "a million ways to die in a day". And with Kally's coordination, her one million quickly became ten million.

'Aw come on!' Chris called down to her. The muscles in his arms rippled slightly as he clung fast to the narrow ledge he held. 'It's not that bad.'

Kally glared up at him from the ground. This climbing wall was just number four on the "million ways to die" list. It had lava that burned you if it caught you, and probably the most difficult pathways up she'd ever seen. She'd already been burned twice and she had barely stepped up to the wall.

'Maybe for you.' Kally replied. 'I'd rather not die painfully and humiliatingly.'

Chis laughed. 'You won't die. It's just a little lava.'

_Oh_, Kally thought. _Just lava. Just boiling hot, potentially lethal balls of burning shrapnel. No biggie._

Chris sighed and slid to the bottom of the climbing wall, careful not to get hit by the lava Kally noted. He turned to her.

'Come on, we have archery next,' he said, taking her arm and pulling her towards the shooting range. 'Chiron's taking our class. He normally teaches masters but I guess he wanted to help you personally.'

'Great, now I have a babysitter and an overprotective mentor,' Kally said sarcastically.

It was bad enough that Chris had been assigned to keep an eye on her until she was settled in, but now Chiron was watching out for her too? It was kind of sweet she supposed, but it only made her mad. She wasn't five anymore, she could take care of herself.

Chris gave her a look. 'It's not so bad Kally. At least you know he cares.'

'I have you for that though. And Percy and Annabeth seem pretty protective too.'

That morning, the Hermes cabin had sword-fighting lessons first up with the Athena cabin, and Percy had tagged along.

It made Kally kind of sad that Percy had no one else in his cabin. He had no one to laugh with at night and play pranks with.

In only one night, Kally had already formed attachments to Kelsey, Chris, and the Stoll brothers. Plus she had befriended Annabeth, Percy, and Grover. She still wasn't sure about Nico; he kind of gave her the creeps. Rachel still didn't want to talk to her.

'Why is Percy the only one in his cabin?' Kally asked suddenly.

Chris looked at his shoes uncomfortably. 'Percy is quite… special, you could say. He's unique. Same with that Nico kid.'

'What makes them so special?' Kally wondered.

Chris slowed and then stopped, pulling Kally to halt too. He towed her to a shed full of weapons beyond a warrior's dreams. Shiny daggers and sword hilts glinted in the dim light. Bows lined the walls, quivers full of arrows set beside each one. Kally had never seen so much bronze in her life.

She sat on a stool as Chris began talking and pacing rapidly. 'Okay, so the gods up on Olympus are known as the Olympians, right? The twelve major gods that sit up there in the clouds and eat peeled grapes or whatever it is they do up there. Well, the three most powerful are Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. We refer to them as the Big Three.

'Percy is the son of Poseidon. He's got like mega-water-powers or something. And Nico…'

'Is the son of Hades,' Kally finished for him. 'One of the Big Three.'

'Exactly.' Chris confirmed. 'So they both have some crazy super demi-god powers, and we're all stuck with whatever we've got. Which, in the case of the Hermes cabin, is basically a lot of unclaimed siblings.'

'Have there been other children of the Big Three?' Kally wondered.

'Yes,' Chris said hesitantly. 'But not many. There was Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus.'

'What happened to her?' she asked.

'She's still around,' Chris told her. 'She joined Artemis's Hunters and now she leads them. Immortality has its perks I suppose.'

'Anyone else?' Kally asked, pretending she knew what the Hunters of Artemis were.

Chris shook his head. 'No one that's still around.'

His expression told her that the discussion had come to an end. But there was one more thing she was curious about.

'Chris, why aren't there many children of the Big Three?'

He sighed again. 'There was a prophecy. It said that the next child of the Big Three to reach the age of sixteen would have a massive decision to make – like, one-that-would-decide-the-fate-of-Olympus-and-the-entire-world big. So the Big Three made a pact not to have any more kids. But, as you can see, that didn't last very long.'

'So kids like Nico and Percy,' Kally said slowly, 'are not meant to exist?' Chris nodded glumly. Kally laughed without humour. 'That must suck.'

'I know,' he agreed, standing. 'I can't imagine how it would feel not to have a family like I do in cabin eleven.'

Kally looked at her feet. She knew what it was like not to have a family. But he was right. Now that she knew what a real family felt like, she was very reluctant to give it up. She pitied children of the Big Three, and the single son of Dionysus – Pollux. He always seemed so sad. Chris had said it was because his twin, Castor, had been killed in battle two years ago. Kally couldn't even fathom how painful it would be if her brother Colton died, and she imagined being a twin would only make it harder.

'Ready to go to archery now?' Chris interrupted her thoughts. She shook off her daydream and mumbled a response, then followed him out from the weapons shed and to the archery field.

The Ares cabin were already there, and members of the Hermes cabin were joining the lesson leisurely, not worrying about being late to class.

Clarisse stood almost at attention in front of Chiron, a look of concentration plastered onto her face. She smiled as Chris approached until she caught sight of Kally. Her expression changed to one of worry, then anger, then fear, before finally settling on a blank façade.

'Clarisse.' Chris grinned as she walked hastily out to meet them. She practically ignored him, preferring to stare blankly at Kally. 'You okay?' he asked.

'Fine.' She said in a clipped tone. She turned to face him finally. 'Who's the Barbie doll?'

'Don't be mean,' Chris frowned at her. 'And don't pretend you don't know Clarisse. You know perfectly well who this is.'

She turned to Kally again, looking defiant. 'I guess I just hoped you weren't,' she said eventually.

Kally's temper rose quickly. 'It's great to see you too Clarisse.'

'So you finally got here then.'

'Yeah. No thanks to you.' Kally snapped.

Clarisse glared at her. 'I promised I'd talk to Chiron. I did.'

'Just not about me,' she responded. 'You told him about Chris and nothing else. I bet you said you defeated Panos, if you even mentioned him at all.'

'I said nothing about that stupid Cyclops,' she growled. 'I took care of what needed taking care of. You were not exactly my highest priority at the time.' Her eyes flicked to Chris momentarily and then back.

'And then you just forgot about me did you?' Kally rolled her eyes.

'I didn't forget!' Clarisse cried. 'I- I just…'

She didn't finish her sentence. Chris just looked shocked that the two girls could be so venomous to each other. Chiron trotted over.

'Is there a problem children?' he asked gently.

'No,' Kally answered for a now almost-crying Clarisse. 'There's no _problem_. I just don't feel so good. I'm going to go back to the cabin and lie down for a while.'

She dismissed herself without waiting for approval and stormed towards the cabins. She shouldn't have been so mad, but she felt betrayed by someone she'd thought had cared about her. She didn't need another fake person in her life.

Not long after, she heard footsteps behind her. 'If you've come here just to yell at me, you can turn around now because-'

She stopped when she saw who was following her. She had expected it to be Chris, but instead she saw a slightly shorter blonde boy. Pollux, the boy from cabin twelve, son of Dionysus.

'Oh.' She said. 'Hi.'

'Hi,' he said awkwardly. After a while he seemed to realise he should probably say something. 'I, uh, saw you and Clarisse arguing. It seemed pretty heated.'

'Yeah,' was all she said. He kept eye contact the whole time.

Pollux had the strangest eyes Kally had ever seen. They were a peculiar purple colour, almost violet, with just tiny threads of blue through them. He wasn't an overly attractive boy in Kally's opinion, but looking closer, Kally could see certain things about him that were nice. His eyes, the way his hair became golden in the sunlight. They made him seem somehow happy, although he looked anything but.

'I thought you could use someone to talk to.' He said finally.

'And so _you_ decided to just take on that responsibility?' she raised her eyebrow.

He shrugged. 'Why not me? You need someone to talk to; I want to talk to someone. Seems like a good combo to me.'

She'd only moments before been thinking how lonely Pollux had been, but she'd never quite realised just how lonely until that point. She relaxed her guarded stance.

'Well then,' she said. 'Let's talk.'

They spent the next few hours sitting out the front of cabin twelve, talking about everything. From their favourite junk food, to personal struggles with weapons, to monsters, to siblings.

Pollux was understandably touchy about this subject. He told Kally about Castor and how close they were. His brother was his only friend at camp. Together they had helped tend the strawberry fields with their dad. Now that Castor was gone, and his father became more detached from Pollux, he shouldered the burden alone.

'I'll help you,' Kally volunteered. Pollux smiled appreciatively.

'Thanks, but it's okay. Really. Some of the girls from cabin four, Demeter's cabin, they come and help out sometimes. They love to sneak some of the strawberries in the summer.' He smiled genuinely, but then it faded. 'It's just not the same without him, you know?'

'Yeah,' Kally nodded. She did know. She missed her own brother tremendously, and he was still alive. 'I don't know how you cope.'

'It's not easy,' he admitted. 'But it's manageable now. Dad helped me a lot for a while after it happened.'

Kally made a face. 'No offense, but I don't much like your dad.'

'No one really does,' he told her. 'Which means no one really likes me either. Well, they might but they don't want to talk to me and find out because they think I'm just like my dad.'

'You are _nothing_ like your dad,' Kally said immediately.

'How am I not?' he asked, amused.

'Well, for starters, I'm talking to you. I can't stand him.' They both laughed.

Pollux smiled and looked at Kally again. 'So why were you arguing with Clarisse?'

'Oh.' She had hoped he'd forgotten about that. 'It's stupid. It probably won't make any sense to you.'

'Try me,' he said, his violet eyes glinting at the challenge.

So she explained about meeting Clarisse and a delirious Chris three years ago, and defeating Panos, and Clarisse's promise to come back for her. Afterwards she sat in silence. 'Crazy, huh?'

'No.' He said. She had to check his face to see if he was joking. 'I totally understand why you freaked out at her now. I thought she was mad at you, not the other way around.'

'Why would she be mad at me?' Kally wondered.

'Because of you and Chris,' he said, like it should be obvious.

'What about us?' she demanded, defensive now.

'You guys are getting really close. I mean, if I had a girlfriend and she started hanging around some hot new guy, I'd be pretty pissed,' Pollux explained.

Kally ignored the 'hot' part. 'So Chris and Clarisse are dating?'

'Yeah, of course.' He replied. 'They have been since my dad cured Chris. You didn't know?'

'No. Chris never said anything,' she said. 'I mean, I always suspected but he didn't say it was true, and Clarisse seemed conflicted about it when I first met her.'

Pollux nodded. She couldn't believe that in the few hours she'd known him, he had become her confidante, her friend. She had never been able to open up to someone the way she had done with Pollux. It surprised her how easily she was making friends here.

'It's getting dark,' Kally noted ruefully. 'I should probably head back to cabin eleven.'

'I don't get why you're in with the Hermes kids,' Pollux frowned.

'What do you mean? Why wouldn't I be?' she replied. 'I'm _undetermined_ or whatever. Isn't that where undetermined kids go?'

'Yeah but I thought they'd be able to place you straight away,' he told her. 'I mean, I certainly did.'

'Oh? And where exactly would you place me?' she asked sarcastically. She stood up, looking down on Pollux still sitting on the front steps.

'In cabin ten; Aphrodite,' he said without flinching. Kally, however, did flinch.

'Look, I know that's meant to be a compliment and all, but I don't think I am. And I really don't want to be.' She crossed her arms tight across her chest.

'Why not?' Pollux asked, bewildered.

'Because those girls are vain, and manipulative, and vindictive. All they think about is themselves and nobody else.' Kally said firmly.

Pollux stood and stared her right in the eye. He was only marginally taller than her, maybe six foot. 'Don't let anyone at camp hear you say that. Not ever.'

'Why not?' Kally scoffed. 'They know it's true.'

Pollux just shook his head. 'You'll get it eventually. Just don't go around saying that okay?'

Kally nodded slightly. She felt like she'd just been demoted for some strange reason. It was belittling. 'Goodnight Pollux.'

'Goodnight… Kalypso.'

Kally stopped. 'How did you know…'

'I overheard your conversation with Percy,' he said, grinning. 'It's a pretty name by the way. Don't be ashamed of it. The original Calypso isn't the horrible enchantress of her story. She's the damsel in distress.'

With that, Pollux turned and entered his cabin. Kally walked back to the run down cabin that housed the Hermes kids.

As she stepped across the threshold, she was bombarded by a high pitched tornado of curly blonde hair and designer clothes.

'Ah!' Kally shrieked, trying to get a look at her attacker. When the blur slowed down, she realised it was just Kelsey. 'Gods, you scared me half to death! Don't _do_ that!'

'Sorry,' she said briskly, although she didn't sound at all sincere. One thing Kally liked about Kelsey was that she didn't beat around the bush; she got straight to whatever was on her mind and censored nothing, even to spare feelings. 'Are you and Pollux an item?'

'What?' Kally said dumbly. She had barely registered Kelsey's mile-a-minute speech.

'Are you and Pollux dating?' she demanded again.

'Um, no,' Kally said, giving her friend a strange look. 'We just met.'

'Well you were talking to him for hours.' Kelsey noted. 'Outside his cabin. It looked pretty personal.'

'Were you spying?' Kally asked. Kelsey shrugged noncommittally and continued the rapid-fire questioning.

Eventually Kally could stand it no more. 'Gods, stop! Why is this so interesting to you all of a sudden?'

'Oh you haven't seen me interested in something, this is just light curiosity,' Kelsey informed her. 'Are you into him?'

'Huh?' she made a face and walked to her bunk. She was bunked right next to Kelsey, which meant sleep was hard to come by at night. No one could sleep with Miss Chatterbox yapping all night. 'I don't know. Like I said, I just met him. Now would you stop?'

Kelsey seemed unsatisfied with this. 'At least promise you'll tell me if anything happens.' Kally promised she would, just to get her away.

'Good!' She beamed at Kally. 'We have sword fighting with the Demeter cabin now.'

'I'm not feeling up to it,' Kally told her. 'I think I'll just lie down here for a bit.'

'You sure?'

'Yeah, I'll see you at dinner.'

Kelsey shrugged, gave her a quick squeeze, and breezed out the door like a fashion model. Kally shook her head in awe. If anyone was going to be a child of Aphrodite, it was going to be Kelsey.

Not feeling up to another sword fighting lesson had not been a complete lie. But there was something Kally had to do.

She waited for a moment, giving Kelsey time to leave the cabin area, and then stepped out into the fresh evening air. She strolled around the cabins, searching for cabin five.

She passed Percy's cabin; a bungalow similar to cabin eleven but with seashells decorating the door and walls, and a sea-foam coloured paint job. It didn't look as worn out as cabin eleven either, Kally noticed.

More cabins were ruled out. A marble temple next to a smaller peacock-feathered one stood tall at the end of the cabins. They seemed strangely empty, even desolate. One with flowers on the roof – definitely Demeter's cabin.

Right next door, however, was a crimson lodge that loomed menacingly with barbed wire rimming the roof. This was definitely the kind of place she could picture Clarisse living, Kally thought. Above the door was a mounted boar's head and a giant number five.

Steeling herself, she climbed the steps and knocked on the door. After a short while, the door opened and a brute-faced boy with a big build stood facing her. He looked her up and down with a disapproving scowl. He said nothing, but simply grunted. She cleared her throat.

'Uh, is Clarisse here?' she asked, trying not to sound nervous.

The boy grunted again. 'Not for you, Barbie.'

'As insultingly misogynistic as that is, I actually need to talk to her.' Kally snapped. She shoved the boy aside and walked past him, but he grabbed her arm and whirled her outside again.

'She doesn't want to see you,' he grumbled.

'Yeah? Well, I don't really care,' she told him, again stepping around him.

He tried to grab her again but she darted inside, and the boy fell over using his own gravitational force. Kally almost allowed herself a smug smile.

The inside of cabin five was alike to that of cabin eleven. An organised mess lay around the floors, largely consisting of junk food packaging and energy bar wrappers. Bunks were strewn about here and there, with the wall space personalised. Most people had photos of their favourite bands and armour mounted on their walls.

After the striking interior, the next thing that she noticed was the stench. The cabin stunk of sweaty socks, mouldy food, and smoke for some weird reason. They all combined into a singular smell that assaulted Kally's nose and made her eyes water.

She scanned the mess for Clarisse and found her hunched over a shiny bronze shield on her bunk.

'Clarisse,' she started towards her. She snapped her head up and then glared at the boy on the floor.

'I thought I told you to keep her out.' She sneered at Kally grouchily.

The boy mumbled some apology and left the building. Kally turned to Clarisse.

'Clarisse,' she said gently. 'I haven't come to apologise. I think we both know I have every right to be mad at you.'

Clarisse grumbled something unintelligible. Kally looked at her easily. 'I want to know why you never came back.'

Clarisse gave no hint of an answer. She was stubborn; Kally had to give her that.

During Clarisse's silence, Kally scanned the wall space around her bunk. There were photos of her and Chris, probably a few summers ago. They seemed happy, and the joy she saw in Clarisse's eyes in those photos seemed a stark contrast to how she knew Clarisse to be.

Posters of heavy punk bands took up more of the wall space than anything else. A corroded bronze helmet was mounted next to a picture of Clarisse standing beside a beautiful dark haired girl, smiling like the photographer had caught her in the middle of a laugh.

For a brief moment Kally wondered who the girl was, but then Clarisse spoke.

'I owe you an explanation,' she said gruffly. 'But I won't give it to you. Not yet.'

'When?' Kally asked, impatient. 'I think three years is long enough.'

'When I say so,' the Ares girl snapped.

Kally stared, open mouthed, at Clarisse. Then she stood up, strode angrily to the door, and slammed it shut behind her. She stalked back to cabin eleven and sat on her bed to think clearly.

She had never felt so infuriated in her life. She sat there grumbling about the arrogance of Ares kids until Chris entered, sweaty and out of breath. He looked at her and asked what was wrong.

'Your girlfriend,' Kally growled.

'What about her?' Chris said, a warning in his voice. He kept searching for whatever it was he'd come in for.

'I went to get an answer out of her and she refused to apologise.' Kally huffed and stood up. 'She's so pig-headed! How can you stand her?'

Chris's glare shot daggers and his voice was sharp as ice. 'She's my girlfriend. I don't "stand" her, I care about her and love her! She may be a bit stubborn at times but she is so far a better person than you in lots of ways!'

And Chris turned, newly attained sword in hand, and stomped out of the cabin, leaving Kally on her own, fuming.

Tears stung her eyes. For the first time since arriving at Camp Half-Blood, she felt alone.


	8. Chapter 8

The weeks passed quickly at Camp Half-Blood. With so much to do to keep her busy, Kally rarely even thought of her argument with Chris.

Strangely, she found her archery and sword-fighting improved greatly when she was mad. All she had to do was focus on her anger and pretend she was shooting at or fighting the person she was mad at. It gave her maybe a smidge too much satisfaction when she landed a devastating blow on her opponent or a bulls-eye on the target.

Even though her anger was an asset in training, outside of that people tended to stay away from her, afraid of getting on her bad side. Even Kelsey was keeping her distance. Whenever Kally walked by Kelsey would give her a disdainful look and turn her nose up slightly.

Of course, she had a somewhat plausible reason for being so childish. Kally had missed her being claimed at the campfire one night. She'd run up to her with a huge grin on her face and she appeared as though she might pass out she was so giddy.

Kally had never been one for caring about looks, but she would never forget how stunning Kelsey Hausman was that night.

Her mid-length blond hair was curled into flawless ringlets that framed her cherubic face perfectly. Her makeup was applied naturally and with a light hand, save for the smouldering lips that blazed bright red.

Her gown was just as spectacular – a silvery-white garment that almost swept the ground. It was simple, with a halter neck and a low-plunging back that gathered at the small of her back. Silvery heels were visible beneath the dress.

She seemed to be glowing slightly. She was truly radiant.

'Where were you?' she'd demanded, her eyes lighting up. 'Aphrodite just claimed me as her daughter. Can you believe it? _I'm_ a child of _Aphrodite_!'

Of course she was. 'That's great,' Kally had said. 'Sorry I missed it. You look stunning.'

Kelsey had given a little _I know right?_ shrug and smirk, but then fixed her coppery eyes back on Kally. 'So where were you?'

Obviously there was no worming her way out of this one. Kally sighed and told her truth. 'I just wasn't up to it.'

'Why not?' Kelsey's eyes had gone from accusing to worry in an instant. 'Are you okay?'

'More or less,' Kally had told her. 'Still a bit… miffed… about Chris. That's all.'

And then the anger came back to Kelsey's eyes. 'You missed my mother claiming me so you could wallow in your own self-pity?'

Kally tried to say something but Kelsey just kept going. 'You are so selfish! I would never have missed your parent claiming you for something as silly as that!'

'Well it's not like I knew you would-'

'And to think, I thought you were my friend!' Kelsey had started crying and shoved past Kally, despite her protesting.

_Great, now you've lost two, possibly three friends_, Kally had thought to herself. _Way to go Kally_.

Now she spent most of her day practising her skills or hanging out with the few friends she had left.

Percy and Annabeth took her side completely on the whole Clarisse thing, although she suspected it was mostly because they'd never really been friendly with Clarisse. Grover and his girlfriend Juniper often came out from the woods to hang out with them too. And the Stoll brothers turned out to be a good choice of friends – well, it was certainly better to be on their good side at any rate. Those boys pulled some pretty epic pranks.

Then there was Nico. He kept to himself mostly, locked away in cabin thirteen. He rarely came out except for meals, and sometimes he would disappear without a trace, even for days at a time.

Percy said not to worry about it. 'He's a pretty solitary kind of guy. He doesn't really like the company of people.'

Pollux seemed to think Nico and Kally were very alike. Only the gods knew why.

'You both like to be alone,' he told her now. 'You both hold grudges for way too long and you both find it hard to relate to people.'

'Oh, two weeks and suddenly you're the expert on all things Kally?' she said with a sideways smirk.

'Well, I'd like to think so,' he replied with a grin.

'Come on Pollux, I barely know Nico,' she said seriously. 'I've seen him all of, like, three times since I met him.'

Pollux considered this. 'That's three times more than some people here have seen their godly parent, and they could be clones of them in some cases.'

Kally gave him a look. He laughed. 'Look, I'm just saying you don't have to know someone to be just like them.'

'And sometimes the people you know are nothing like you,' Kally muttered in reply.

'Uh oh.' Pollux said, clasping his hands together and putting on a serious face like some sort of psychiatrist. 'Is this about Kelsey again?'

Kally sighed. 'Yes. She still won't talk to me. And she thinks I'm the one who's stuck up and selfish. Well, what else did I expect from an Aphrodite girl?'

Pollux made the face he did every time Kally insulted the Aphrodite kids. It was kind of like a mixture between a scowl and a sour face. It made his nose scrunch in a comical way that made it hard for Kally to take him seriously.

But she knew he wasn't happy with her, so she fought back the smile that desperately wanted to shape her lips and sighed again.

'Look I know everyone here seems to think differently to me, but I just can't see it any other way,' she told him honestly.

'So basically it's a case of "I can't help it that you're wrong and I'm not"?' Pollux rolled his eyes. 'I'm not saying that what Kelsey did was right but you are being really stubborn about this.'

'That's just who I am.' Kally stated plainly.

Now it was Pollux's turn to sigh. 'I know.' Then he smiled playfully. 'And that just happens to be one of the traits that I find attractive in someone.'

Wait what?

'Pollux, where are you going with this?' Kally asked cautiously.

'Oh relax.' He waved her suspicion aside. 'I just mean in general. I mean, if a girl can't stand by what she believes then that's a serious problem. However, it also becomes a problem when the girl won't stand down from what she believes in if she's wrong.'

'So you're saying I'm wrong?' Kally challenged.

'Yes. Yes I am.' Pollux grinned.

Kally stood from her seat on cabin twelve's steps and folded her arms across her chest. 'Well then, son of Dionysus. I believe there's only one way to settle this.'

'I guess so.' Pollux rose as well, meeting her eye and holding the contact with a smug expression. Then it faded. 'And what's that exactly?'

'A challenge,' Kally said, tilting her chin upwards and smirking. 'You and me. In the arena. One hour.'

Pollux's violet eyes lit up at the challenge. That was one thing Kally had discovered about him; he never backed down from a challenge. He delighted in new experiences and leaped at the chance to learn.

'You're on Kalypso,' he told her, narrowing his eyes at her.

She moaned, breaking the whole serious mood of the conversation. Pollux grinned again in anticipation of what she would say. 'You know I hate it when you use my full name.'

'Yep.' He beamed somehow wider.

'So why do you do it?'

'Reason one: it's your name. You were born with it and so that is what I shall call you.' He said. 'Reason two: it annoys you.'

He winked, but then turned and fled from Kally, who was chasing him with a mean looking blade in her hands.

'I swear to the gods, next time you call me that I will throw this into your head Pollux Birch!'

After their little chase, Kally went back to cabin eleven to clean up a bit before her big battle with Pollux. She couldn't wipe the smile of her face at his expression when she'd knocked him to the ground and held the sword to his throat.

'What are you smiling about?' Travis Stoll had sauntered up to her side as she laid her equipment on her bunk. He gave her a cheeky smile. She immediately mistrusted him.

'None of your business,' she told him, turning away, still smiling.

'Come on, tell me,' he insisted. When Kally still refused he took a guess. 'It that Pollux kid isn't it?'

'What if it was?' Kally asked him defensively.

'He's bad news,' Travis told her. 'No one likes him.'

'Yeah, well I do.' Kally snapped, returning her attention to her bunk.

Travis grinned evilly, like this was exactly what he'd been hoping for her to say. 'You do huh? Well now…'

'Uh, not in that way Travis.' She pushed past him and began searching for her dagger. She'd had it when she walked in…

'Oh you don't?' He said, his voice up an octave higher than usual. 'Well I'd better go and tell him then. Wouldn't want him getting his hopes up or anything.'

'Wait what?' Kally stopped and whirled around to face the older Stoll brother. 'What do you mean "get his hopes up"? What hopes?'

'Oh poor Kally,' he said sweetly. 'Poor, blind, innocent Kally.'

'Shut up Stoll, and start talking,' she warned.

He sighed melodramatically and gave her a pathetic sad face. 'Well, I don't want to give up anyone's secrets… But I guess I could this one time. Pollux is totally into you.'

Kally's jaw dropped halfway to the floor. 'Did he tell you that?'

'He didn't need to tell me that,' Travis told her, raising an eyebrow. 'It's pretty obvious by the way he acts around you. But if you're not interested…'

Travis sidled up closer to Kally in one smooth movement. He was slightly shorter than her, maybe by an inch or two. But his eyes were a perfect clear blue and they locked onto Kally's now.

'I'm always available,' he whispered with a wink.

Kally thought about it. She didn't think she had any feelings towards Pollux other than companionship. He was a good friend; that was all.

But did she have feelings toward Travis?

He was kind of cute. His messy brown hair matched his messy personality. And his eyes were just as clear as his intentions most of the time. He was funny, always telling jokes and making people laugh. And he could even be kind of sweet at times.

She made up her mind. 'That's cute Travis,' she said, 'but I think I'll pass.'

She spotted her dagger by the door and picked it up, turning only to look back at Travis. His expression was both overconfident and yet still accepting.

'Besides, until I become determined, I'm technically your sister.' She gave him a quick wink and then stepped outside the cabin.

She headed towards the arena, dagger in hand. She noticed storm clouds circling the sky. It didn't bother her; she'd been told by Chiron that the magical boundaries around the camp protected them both from monsters and the weather.

As she walked into the arena, she saw a small crowd gathered to witness the duel. Mostly girls from the Demeter cabin, and some of Apollo's kids too. She also spotted Percy, Annabeth, Grover, Juniper, and a grouchy looking Rachel.

Kally waved. Percy waved happily back, Grover and Juniper were too entranced with each other to notice, Annabeth gave an encouraging smile, and Rachel just huffed.

Then a smaller guy dressed all in black and an aviator jacket sat down a short distance from Percy – close enough to show they were friends, but far enough away to make it clear that Nico was on his own.

Standing by the weapons array was Pollux, dressed in bronze battle armour and wielding a simple double-edged blade. He smirked from underneath his visor.

'What's with the audience?' Kally called.

'I hope you don't mind,' he replied, 'but I invited a few friends to watch. That okay with you?'

Kally sneered. 'Fine by me Birch, but it just means there'll be more people to witness you lose.'

Pollux grinned and shouted back, 'We'll see Kalypso. We'll see.'

Kally merely smiled and walked to her own weapons array. She tucked away her dagger and ran her eyes over the selection.

She picked a sword similar to Pollux's. It was double-edged and razor sharp, shining bronze in the dying sunlight. It was slimmer, lighter, and easier to manoeuvre than Pollux's. His looked heavy, more for a direct assault than for evasiveness and smaller, less affronting attacks.

Already her brain had kicked into high gear and begun deciphering Pollux's movements before the battle had even begun. Her ADHD – her natural battle reflexes – had become more finely tuned during her stay at Camp Half-Blood. She knew how to strategise, to think, to win.

She stepped away and slid on her armour, ensuring it was done up tight. She reached for her helmet, but paused. Really, it would only impair her view of the battle. Pollux wouldn't try and hit her around the head anyway; he knew it could cause damage, even with a helmet. It wouldn't be an asset to her this time.

So she slowly stepped away, leaving her helmet behind.

And that was her first mistake.

Someone blew a conch shell, and the battle begun.

Pollux lunged towards her, swinging his blade to her midsection. She deflected it and rotated his blade around to his chest and pushed with all her might, sending him stumbling backwards.

He recovered quickly and thrust his sword again towards her midsection. Kally was prepared though, and sidestepped to avoid the blow. She used his own gravitational force against him and used her foot to assist him in toppling to the ground.

He got to his feet and smirked. 'You're pretty good.'

'Wish I could say the same to you,' she countered, grinning wickedly. He gave her a knowing smile and threw himself back at her.

Lunge after lunge, parry after parry, Kally felt herself tiring. She couldn't keep just dodging his attacks and deflecting his blade – she had to act.

It hadn't really crossed her mind before, but she now began to realise how much more training Pollux had. And not just training, but experience. He had been at Camp Half-Blood a long time, and had been training for the same amount of time. Who knew how many years he had under his belt?

Kally began to worry. What if she couldn't beat him?

Pollux didn't let up. If anything, he threw himself into it with more power than before. Kally wondered how he managed. Even with all his training he must have been tired.

Then she realised: he could probably pull energy from the earth, all the way from the big house where the grapevines grew. It was similar to what Percy did with the water. When he got tired, all he had to do was drench himself in water and he was suddenly good again.

_Well great_, Kally thought dryly, catching Pollux's next blow on her sword. _He can just keep on going. I wish I knew what I could draw power from…_

Her thoughts distracted her enough to allow Pollux to land a blow to her torso. She cringed as she hit the ground and dropped her sword. He twirled his sword so that the sharp tip was on her neck.

_Damn_. He'd won.

Suddenly, the ground began to shake. Tiny pebbles next to Kally's head jumped up and down slightly like hot kernels of popcorn waiting to be popped.

A tiny fissure in the earth appeared by Kally's feet. It quickly spread to across the whole arena and slowly became wider.

People started to panic. Demigods everywhere began to flee or stood ready to fight.

Percy stood and drew Riptide, his magical sword. Annabeth did the same with her dagger. Grover and Juniper were nowhere to be found. Rachel stood fast too, although she held no weapon that Kally could see. Nico joined his friends, his Stygian Iron sword at the ready.

Pollux lifted Kally from the ground in a panic. He glanced at her, silently asking what was going on. She gave him a hopeless look in return.

Then the ground split. A huge form was climbing its way out of the crack. It locked one giant paw onto the surface, then another, and hauled itself to the top.

Kally heard a scream. It might have been her. She didn't know. She didn't care.

Because she was staring down the salivating muzzle of a giant two headed dog with a huge serpent slithering from its rear end.


	9. Chapter 9

Kally had seen a hellhound before. Percy kept one as a kind of pet here at camp. The giant dog was perfectly harmless to the other campers though – how could she not be with a name like Mrs O'Leary?

But this was no hellhound. It looked like Mrs O'Leary's bigger, angrier, two-headed, snake-tailed cousin.

The creature growled, causing the ground to rumble. Then it let out an ear-splitting bark. It fixed its glowing red eyes on each demigod that still stood there individually.

Almost everyone had fled the arena once the mutt had pulled itself out of that crack. Kally was sure they had run to get Chiron or Mr D or someone that could help them for gods' sake.

Now only Nico, Kally, Percy, Pollux, Annabeth and Rachel stood facing the beast. Five demigods and an Oracle against one huge demonic dog with two heads.

Perfect.

Annabeth was the first to react in any way other than frozen terror. She shook off the shock and charged the monster dog with her dagger, slashing it through the air.

Seeing Annabeth go near the thing must have snapped Percy out of his trance because he was soon right beside her, Riptide moving as though it had a nervous tick.

Pollux ran toward the thing too, sword raised high above his head. Soon everyone was hacking away at bits of the monster except for Rachel.

She just stood in the stands watching the scene unfold, an irritated and thoughtful expression on her face. Soon she scooped up some rocks from the ground and began lobbing them at the dog as hard as she could.

This just seemed to annoy the thing. It growled again and everyone lost their footing as the ground vibrated once again.

Kally didn't have time to stop swinging her sword, but as she did she took in a quick vision of the battlefield.

Annabeth had somehow managed to get nearly beneath the dog's feet and was slashing away with her knife at his paws, legs, knees; anything she could get her knife near. Nico and Pollux were trying to get a solid jab into either of beast's flanks, but to no avail.

Percy seemed to be battling the serpent tail. As Kally watched, he moved to avoid its strike and swung upwards in an attempt to behead it. Unfortunately, the snake recoiled too quickly.

That left Kally to deal with the two heads. One was preoccupied with snapping its jaws at Nico, and the other was glaring at Rachel who was still pegging rocks.

'What in the name of Zeus is this thing?' Percy shouted over the noise.

It was Annabeth who answered. 'I think it's Orthus!' she shouted back between jabs. 'He was charged with protecting the herd of red cattle belonging to Geryon!'

'So what's he doing here?' called Pollux, not taking his eyes off the dog's head that had now taken more interest in him than Nico.

'No idea!' screamed Annabeth. She dropped to her knees and rolled out of the way of Orthus's huge paw. 'Someone from the inside must have let him in! No monsters can pass through the borders of camp without someone letting them in!'

'Any idea how to kill it?' Kally yelled to Annabeth. She dared not move her eyes off the dog's heads in case one of them got tired of looking at Rachel or Pollux.

'Hercules beat him in his tenth labour,' Annabeth called in reply. 'Apparently he just hit him over the head with his club and killed him.'

'What a shame we're short of giant-dog-killing clubs.' Percy shouted.

'So what do we do?' Kally asked again, ignoring Percy's sarcastic comment.

Annabeth didn't reply. It took Percy's pained cry of 'Annabeth!' to understand why. Orthus's paw had caught her over the back of the head, knocking her out.

Percy began to run toward the unconscious blond but was knocked back by the slithering tail end of Orthus. He slumped to the ground and snapped his head up to the serpent.

He leapt up and, with a new rage, brought his sword down over the snake's head. This time, it parted from its body and rolled across the ground.

Kally had been so preoccupied watching Percy battle that she hadn't noticed Orthus's second head turn its attention away from Rachel and onto her. The creature's head snapped its jaws right next to Kally's head.

She screamed and dive rolled out of the way. 'Percy!' she cried. 'Help!'

Percy looked up from the dog's tail end. He glanced towards Annabeth, torn. Kally screamed again. Percy shook his head quickly and looked up at the grand stands. 'Rachel! Get Annabeth out of there!' Then he ran to Kally's side.

Kally was really beginning to regret not wearing a helmet. Orthus's jaws kept on snapping closed right beside her head and it was getting harder to avoid them. She was already worn out from her fight with Pollux, but dodging a giant dog head was completely fatiguing.

Percy managed to swipe the muzzle with Riptide, leaving a gash dripping red blood.

Out of the corner of her eye, Kally spotted Rachel dashing between Orthus's legs to get to Annabeth.

Together, Kally and Percy fought the dog's head. It was starting to look up for the duo when suddenly it became two-on-two. Orthus's other head spun around to face Kally, his red eyes glowing viciously.

'Can you handle one on your own?' Percy asked loudly.

Kally shook nervously. 'I don't know. I'm pretty tired.'

Percy gave her a solemn look. 'You're gonna have to try.'

Orthus snapped at her, still going for her head. _Why does this thing like my head so much?_ she wondered.

After only moments, Kally felt exhausted. She chanced a look at the grand stands to see if Rachel had got Annabeth out yet. She felt slightly better seeing Rachel back at her spot pegging rocks again, Annabeth lying motionless beside her.

Suddenly Nico perked up. 'I have an idea!' he cried, before bolting into the forest.

Now Pollux was left taking the flanks alone while Percy helped Kally with Orthus's heads. _Great_, Kally thought. _Now what?_

'Percy, what now?'

Percy grunted a little. He was pretty caught up with Orthus's first head to reply. But he let out a long, shrill whistle. Not even a minute later Mrs O'Leary bounded through the arena gate, happily prancing toward Percy.

'Mrs O'Leary!' he called to her. 'Help us girl! Attack Orthus!'

Somehow the hellhound understood. She leapt at Orthus, even though he almost twice her size. The force and the surprise were enough to knock the monster to the ground momentarily. The crack in the ground opened up a little wider.

Kally was suddenly struck with an idea. She tried calling out to Pollux.

'Pollux!' she shouted as Mrs O'Leary was thrown off the back off Orthus and into a wall. He turned his head away slightly to look at her. 'Can you get a sword into this thing's chest? Maybe between its heads?'

'Between the heads, are you crazy?' he yelled back, ducking to dodge the limp tail that flew over his head.

'Maybe,' she replied. 'But we're running out of options! Just, try your best!'

Pollux grunted and ran to Kally's side, then began thrusting his sword towards the gap between Orthus's heads.

'No, not yet!' Kally shouted. He turned to her in exasperation. 'Just keep its head busy until I say to stab him, okay?'

He grunted again but did as she asked. This left Kally free to tell Rachel to keep the rocks coming. As she turned to talk to Percy, something hard hit her in the back of the head.

She whirled around and saw rocks the size of a mini-fridge flying over the border of the arena. Rachel looked as clueless as Kally did. She didn't know anyone who could throw rocks that size.

Then Nico ran in from the forest, another boulder rolling along behind him. He waved his arm and the boulder zipped through the air and into Orthus's right flank.

The two heads both growled and spun to face Nico. He paled slightly, which was hard for someone as pale as Nico. And then Orthus ran at him.

Nico dive rolled beneath the monster and brought his sword up us he passed the underbelly, cutting deep. Orthus yelped in surprise as Nico stood up, behind him now, and sent another boulder flying into the thing's heads.

Kally turned away, sure Nico could defend himself for just a little while. She bolted to Percy, who was about to make break for it towards Nico. She tugged at his arm.

'Percy, wait! We have to get him back into that crack somehow.' Kally told him her plan. 'Are you sure it'll work?' he asked when she was done.

'I don't know, but it's all we got,' she said. He nodded firmly.

'Let's do it.'

Percy ran to the injured Mrs O'Leary while Kally raced to help Pollux and Nico. And just in time. They were on death's doorstep by the time she reached them. She pulled them behind a huge boulder about the size of a standard kitchen.

'Nico, how many more rocks have you got?'

Nico cringed slightly. 'One.' He gestured to a stone that seemed dwarfed by the pile of rock they were hiding behind. 'I couldn't exactly find a huge amount of big rocks in the time I had.'

'Okay, well don't use it yet.' Kally ordered.

'Why not?' Nico gaped. 'We haven't got anything left to use.'

'Just trust me.' Kally begged. 'Wait for my signal.'

Nico nodded reluctantly. She made sure Pollux was still ready to stab Orthus between his heads. Then she scaled the grand stands and stood next to Rachel, getting a view over the arena.

'I hope you've got a plan genius,' Rachel said between her teeth, pegging another rock at Orthus.

'Don't worry about what I'm doing,' Kally said indignantly. 'Just get him somewhere near the crack.'

"The crack" had become more of a huge pit that didn't seem to have an end. Which probably meant that it went straight down into Tartarus. Well, she hoped anyway.

Rachel did as commanded and managed to get Orthus angry enough to come closer to her instead of checking out the boulder where Nico and Pollux still hid. She glanced at Kally. 'If you're thinking about the right time to say go, that would be now.'

'NOW!' Kally yelled as loud as she could.

Pollux ran out from behind the rock and caught the attention of the monstrous dog. He risked throwing his sword towards its heads, and was rewarded when it lodged itself between its necks.

Orthus yelped and then stumbled backwards as Nico sent his final rock flying through the air and into his gut.

A shrill whistle pierced the air, and Mrs O'Leary broke into a run at Orthus from the other side, Percy sitting proudly on her back. She collided with him mid-jump, knocking the both of them opposite directions. Orthus slumped to the ground.

The three-sided assault was working exactly as Kally had hoped. She grinned and turned to Rachel to celebrate. But Rachel looked cross.

'It didn't work!' she snapped. She gestured to the two-headed monster that was slowly rising from the ground. Mrs O'Leary's attack hadn't knocked him as far back as Kally had hoped, and instead of falling into the crevice, he had just landed beside it.

Desperately, she scanned the arena for her friends. Percy was trapped underneath an unconscious hellhound. Pollux was on his knees, trying to breathe. And Nico looked about to pass out.

'Nico!' Kally screamed. He managed to look upwards. 'Can you move the boulder? It didn't work!'

Nico barely managed to rasp out the words, 'Too… big… tired…'

It was hopeless then. They had no more tricks. Everyone who could do anything was exhausted, unconscious, or trapped under a hellhound. Kally slumped to her knees, about to give into her own fatigue.

Suddenly a sound reached her ears. She looked up and saw Chiron and what looked like half of the Apollo cabin, all armed with bows and arrows aimed directly at Orthus. They pulled back their drawstrings and let fly a volley of bronze arrows.

Orthus squealed again. He stumbled and tripped over his own feet. Unfortunately, he fell away from the pit.

Kally had to do something. She knew arrows alone wouldn't kill Orthus. He had to go back to Tartarus.

She wished that the stupid boulder below her would just take him out. She collapsed to the earth and clenched her hands in pain.

She glanced upwards at the arena and saw the boulder scrape across the ground and push Orthus to the edge of the pit.

And just as the monster fell into Tartarus, everything faded to black.


	10. Chapter 10

Kally would have liked to wake up to a happy scene of a large meal and a friendly face. Instead, she woke up to Mr D's angry cherub face glaring over her.

'Well,' he grumbled. 'Sleeping beauty's finally awake.'

Kally sat up and rubbed her head. 'What happened?'

'You blacked out.' Mr D wasted no time chatting. 'After destroying my arena, no less.'

She looked around and saw she was in some sort of infirmary. Funny – she hadn't known there was an infirmary. Then again, with all the dangerous activities here she supposed there would have to be medical services somewhere around.

'Sorry,' Kally mumbled. 'I was just trying to kill a monster dog that appeared from the Underworld.'

'"Sorry" won't fix my arena, will it Katie?' he snapped. Someone was grouchy.

'Once again, my name is Kally,' she said.

'Whatever.' Mr D turned around to pour himself a glass of water from a jug sitting on a bedside table.

'Run out of diet Coke?' Kally asked sarcastically, sliding off the bed.

Mr D sneered. 'No,' and the water swirled into a darker colour. She didn't need to drink it to know it was Mr D's preferred beverage.

'Now,' he said, suddenly all business. 'As much as I would like to send you to the harpies for kitchen duties forever, there's a council meeting going on and they want you there.'

'What do they want me for?' Kally peered in a nearby mirror and winced at the scrapes and bruises all over her body.

'What do you think I am? The Oracle?' Mr D said. 'How should I know, Kristy?'

'It's still Kally.'

'Whatever!' Mr D looked close to a breakdown so she decided not to push it. 'Just get to the rec room. They're waiting for you.'

When Kally entered the rec room, she decided Dionysus had been lying. They hadn't waited for her. A full scale argument was going on, and Kally had stepped right into the middle of it.

The rec room was unusually full of demigods convening around the ping pong table. She spotted Annabeth and Percy right beside each other, hands interlocked. Chiron stood behind them, arms folded across his chest, a concentrated expression on his face.

A group of about seventeen others stood around the ping pong table too. Clarisse looked like she was about to leap across the table and stab a pretty Asian girl who seemed to be yelling at Clarisse.

'How do you know?' the Asian girl demanded. 'He could be the traitor! He turned on us before, why wouldn't he do it again?'

Connor Stoll interrupted. 'Because Chris isn't the same person he was then. He was angry and brainwashed. He's changed.'

'What Stoll said,' Clarisse growled.

A tall, dark-skinned girl with burn scars all over her fingers and dressed in overalls pointed her finger at Kally. 'I still say it was her!'

Chiron raised a palm in a gesture of peace. 'Nyssa, you have no proof and no reason to distrust Kally.'

'We don't know anything about her!' The girl, Nyssa, cried. She slammed her fist on the ping pong table. 'We don't even know who her parent is. We can't trust her.'

Nyssa's eyes burned with rage as she glared at Kally. She turned back to Chiron. 'We must act! We have to get rid of her.'

'No.' Pollux stood. 'Chiron's right Nyssa. You don't have any proof. Kally's done nothing wrong.'

'Oh of course you defend her,' a small girl with dark hair pulled into a high ponytail retorted. 'Can't have your girlfriend being sent away from camp now, can you?'

Annabeth threw her dagger into the table, enraged. 'His life is none of your business Lou Ellen. Leave it alone.'

'Why are you defending him?' Lou Ellen asked. 'You're just as bad. You don't talk to him any more than the rest of us.'

'I'm defending him because he's done nothing wrong and he doesn't deserve to be picked on.' Annabeth snapped. 'He fought bravely today. Anybody who thinks otherwise can take it up with me.'

The campers were quiet for a moment. No one dared argue with Annabeth staring everyone down, her grey eyes steely cold.

Chiron cleared his throat. 'All these arguments are valid. However, we cannot let suspicion tear our camp apart.'

'Not being suspicious almost got camp torn apart by a monster today,' Clarisse pointed out. 'We have to make sure of our suspects.'

'Suspects for what?' Kally asked. All eyes turned on her. Some were resentful, some were apologetic. Others were just plain bored.

'For letting Orthrus into the camp, genius.' It was Rachel who spoke. She shouldered her way through the crowded room until she was right in front of Kally. 'The magical border around the camp keeps monsters away. Someone had to have let that thing in from inside the camp.'

'So there's a traitor in camp?' Rachel nodded.

That sounded familiar. Of course! Annabeth had said the same thing earlier when they were battling Orthus.

'And you suspect _me_?' she asked.

Rachel's green eyes didn't move from Kally's face. Slowly, about half of the demigods in the room nodded their heads. She noticed Clarisse nodding too.

'Nobody here trusts me.' Kally said.

'That's not true,' Annabeth said immediately. Percy nodded in agreement, along with Pollux. She looked around for Nico, but he was nowhere to be seen.

Chiron laid a gentle hand on Kally's shoulder. 'We have no reason to distrust you. Some here are simply more aware of the risks-'

'-the risks that a stranger can bring to camp with them,' Nyssa finished for him. Her dark eyes still did not waver from Kally's.

Kally decided to ignore the tension towards her and focus instead on something that had been bothering her since she came in.

'Why is Chris a suspect?' she asked.

Everybody in the room went quiet. Kally strongly suspected it was due to the withering glare Clarisse was giving them.

But the Asian girl spoke up. She didn't seem afraid of Clarisse's wrath like everybody else. In fact, she seemed confident; like she knew she would get her way. 'Because he's turned traitor before. During the Titan war last summer, he was part of the Titan's army.'

'Until Clarisse rescued him from the Labyrinth,' Annabeth said firmly but quietly. 'He wasn't evil Drew, and he isn't any more evil now.'

Drew scoffed. 'Please. I don't have any sympathy for him. Just because he went crazy doesn't excuse what he did. Just like dying didn't excuse what that Silena did.'

The crowd immediately fell silent. Barely a whisper of breath could be heard. Clarisse tightened her grip on her sword, and Kally could see Annabeth grinding her teeth from across the room.

Surprisingly, it was Percy who spoke up. 'Silena Beauregard died a hero. She gave her life for the war and for this camp.'

'She was spying on us for Kronos the whole time!' Drew insisted. 'She was a liar and a traitor and I'm ashamed to say I knew her.'

Clarisse snapped. Several pairs of hands had to hold her back from crawling across the table and putting her sword right through Drew's head. All the while Clarisse kept screaming, 'She was a hero! She _died_ for you! How dare you say that about her! You coward, come over here and face me!'

Eventually, Chiron had to remove Clarisse from the room to prevent injury to herself and others.

Drew didn't look one bit regretful of what she'd said. She only looked more confident. 'You see? She manipulated people to get what she wanted. She manipulated Clarisse, and if our strongest warrior can be manipulated then what good are we?'

To Kally's complete surprise, people began nodding and murmuring agreement.

Drew kept speaking. 'We are weak. We didn't even see another spy slip into our borders. And I'm willing to bet it was Chris.'

Annabeth looked outraged and like she wanted to argue, but her mouth stayed closed.

'How else would they have slipped past everyone?' Drew reasoned. 'By being the one person no one would suspect again. Mr Crazy himself.'

For a brief moment, Kally found herself believing whatever it was Drew was saying. Chris had to be the traitor. It was only logical.

But then she remembered who Chris was. He was her friend. They hadn't spoken in weeks, and he was mad at her, but he was still her friend.

'Listen here,' Kally said curtly. 'I don't know what you think you know, but I know Chris. He's a good guy. He may have done stuff in the past that I'm sure he regrets. But in the present… He's our friend. And call me old fashioned, but I don't turn my back on friends.'

Drew seemed shocked that anyone dared talk back to her. Everyone else seemed to snap out of a haze. They blinked a few times and nodded. Drew looked like she was about to say something snarky in reply, but Chiron trotted in and saved the day.

'The question now,' he said thoughtfully, 'is what to do next. We can't go around suspecting everyone we see. We'd tear ourselves apart.'

'I suggest a quest,' Lou Ellen spoke up. 'To find whoever is responsible for letting the monster in, and why.'

There were noises of general agreement and Chiron sighed. 'It seems the only way to get some peace of mind. Rachel?'

Rachel stepped forwards, a look of nervousness on her face. Kally had a sudden thought.

'Wait!' she said. 'Nico isn't here. Shouldn't he be part of this? I mean, he did fight Orthus with us. He should be here.'

'I'm afraid Mr di Angelo is unable to be here,' Chiron told her. 'He used a great deal of power earlier, and has not yet recovered from his fainting spell.'

Kally frowned. She must have missed him in the infirmary. 'It should be his quest.'

'And why is _that_?' Drew questioned.

'Because,' Kally snapped. 'He was so brave in that fight. He used up so much power to help. And he passed out from the effort of moving that enormous boulder that pushed Orthus right back to Tartarus.'

Percy and Chiron exchanged a look. Percy spoke this time. 'Nico passed out before that boulder moved anywhere. Besides, he barely had the energy to stand, let alone move a ten tonne rock.'

'But… he moved it.' Kally stammered. 'I saw it. The boulder moved-'

'It moved, yes.' Annabeth interrupted. 'But we have no idea how. Everyone was exhausted, Nico especially. As far as we know he's the only person at camp with geokinetic abilities…'

'Wait, geokinesis?' Kally repeated. 'What's that?'

'Being able to move and control the earth with your mind,' Annabeth explained. 'As far as we know only children of Hades have the ability because of his domain beneath the earth. But we only have one child of Hades, and he was unconscious when it happened.'

So how did it move then? Kally wanted to ask again. She knew she would only get the same answer.

At that moment, Nico walked through the door of the rec room. Well, stumbled through might have been a better adjective. He held a hand to his head and another to the wall for support. A bandage was wrapped around his head like some sort of cap, and he had a slight limp.

He looked up and met the eyes of twenty demigods, a centaur and an Oracle, all staring at him. 'Hi guys. Didn't mean to crash your party.'

'Not at all Nico,' Chiron replied happily. 'We were just discussing you.'

'You were?' he asked. The shadows around his eyes seemed to get darker. 'Why?'

'We're putting together a quest,' Annabeth said. 'To find out who the traitor in camp is.'

'So why do you need me?' Nico asked again. He slumped down into a chair.

'Well…' Annabeth seemed at a loss for words. A first, Kally was sure.

'I suggested you lead the quest.' Kally told him.

He stared at her. 'Why?'

She listed off the reasons she had mentioned before, and managed to add in one or two more to persuade him. He still looked unconvinced.

'I've never been on a quest before,' he said quietly. 'I don't know the first thing about it. Send Percy, or someone else with some experience.'

'Actually Nico,' Chiron smiled warmly, 'I think Miss Anastas is right. I think you _should_ lead this quest.'

Nico held eye contact with Chiron for a while. It seemed like he was internally debating whether or not to accept. After a moment, he slouched his shoulders and nodded in defeat.

'Excellent.' Chiron beamed. He addressed all the remaining demigods. 'Now everyone, I must thank you all for coming. But unfortunately you must leave. I'm sure this is keeping you from beloved activities and such things. You understand. Thank you.'

They waited until the last demigod filed out so that it was only Chiron, Nico, Annabeth, Percy, Rachel and Kally left in the room.

Rachel sat down in front of Nico. It was easy to see they both felt awkward facing each other.

'So um…' Nico cleared his throat. 'How does this… work… exactly?'

'You ask me a direct question and I'll spurt out a prophecy,' Rachel said.

'Okay…' Nico drew a deep breath. 'Um… Oracle, can you tell me about my quest?'

For half a second, nothing happened.

Then Rachel's eyes became pale green and began to glow. A slightly greenish haze spilled out from her mouth when she opened it, and when she spoke it was like three raspy voices instead of one.

'_A hero must face their threatening king,_

_Balance and peace to the gods he may bring._

_A treacherous scheme begins to unravel,_

_Families lost reunited in travel._

_A friend to be lost, an enemy gained,_

_True loyalties proven and love ascertained_.'

Rachel's eyes fluttered shut and she slumped in her chair. Percy caught her shoulders before she could fall out. When she reopened her eyes, they were back to their regular green.

'W-what happened?' she wondered. 'Did it work? What did I say?'

Slowly, Annabeth repeated the prophecy to Rachel. She shrugged when asked what it meant. 'I don't know how to make sense of them. I just happen to be the messenger.'

'_True loyalties proven_,' Annabeth muttered. 'That could be the traitor. Someone we think we can trust shows us we can't.'

'It is a possibility.' Chiron stroked his beard in thought. Then he clapped once and looked down at us. 'But we mustn't dwell on it. It's very nearly time for dinner. You'd better go.'

After dinner at the pavilion, Kally paced back and forth by her bunk. She couldn't decipher the meaning of the prophecy.

Percy had told her not to worry about it too much. 'Prophecies will come true, whether we like it or not. The meanings will become clear eventually.'

She didn't even know why she was so obsessed with it. It wasn't her prophecy or her quest. It was Nico's. It was likely that none of the passage even applied to her.

She flung herself onto her bed in frustration. Travis Stoll wandered up beside her. Kally groaned inwardly.

'Hey,' he said, his usual grin firmly in place. 'Have you seen the arena?'

'Not since I blacked out,' Kally told him. She remembered Mr D complaining about the state of it. 'How bad is it?'

'It's pretty wrecked,' he said, running a hand through his hair. 'Chiron reckons we won't be able to train there for at least a month.'

'That's pretty bad,' Kally agreed.

Travis smiled again. 'That crack in the ground's still there though. It's _huge_. I wonder who even made that thing. And how in Zeus's name are they gonna fix it?'

Kally wondered the same thing. She was worried about more monsters climbing up out of the Underworld to attack. She shook off the thought.

'I might go have a look.' She stood and grabbed her jacket, putting her arms through the holes.

'Great, I'll come,' Travis grinned. He started after her but she stopped him.

'I think I'll go alone,' she said. 'Sorry Trav.'

He pretended to be wounded. 'Ouch, that hurt.'

'I'll be back later tonight, okay?' she said, walking further out the door. 'Cover for me if the harpies come around.'

The arena wasn't far. Five minutes later she was standing at the entrance. She plucked up her courage and slipped under the gate.

Travis wasn't exaggerating. The mess was everywhere. Broken slabs of stone were strewn about the place, and bronze weapons were scattered around too. The rocks that Nico had thrown with his power were rolled away from the crack into a neat pile.

The crack itself was enormous. There was no way they could just fill it up with dirt or something. And they couldn't just pave stone over the top.

Kally wondered again just how that huge boulder had moved across the arena and taken out Orthus.

She thought about the battle. It couldn't have been Nico; he was unconscious, and so was Annabeth.

Rachel had some pretty cool power, but Kally doubted she could move rocks.

Pollux was exhausted, and rocks were hardly in his domain.

And Percy was trapped under Mrs O'Leary. Even if he had the ability to move rocks he would have been useless with his arms pinned below ground.

That left only one person.

Kally stared at her open palms, hardly daring to believe. Then she touched them lightly to the earth. She felt a cold chill run through her bones and a lifeless hum that she couldn't place.

She stared at the crack in the ground. She concentrated all her willpower on the pit. She saw it closing in her mind's eye. She saw the gap becoming smaller and smaller until it appeared to be just a thin line trailing the original path.

And slowly, miraculously, the earth really began to move. It rumbled beneath her feet as the two halves were forced together. In only minutes, the gap had sealed itself completely, like it had never even existed.

Kally took her hand away from the dirt in shock. She stared once again at her palm.

Suddenly she felt drained, like she'd just run a mile up a hill. She stumbled slightly but caught herself. Her head spun.

'It was you.'

The voice caught her off guard. She turned to the entrance gate to see Nico stepping out of the shadows. He was staring at the ground where the chasm used to be.

'You moved that boulder.' He said.

Kally nodded nervously. 'I… I think so.'

'How?' He narrowed his eyes at her. 'I don't understand. I thought I was the only one who could-'

He stopped mid-sentence. She looked to his face and saw him staring at the air above her head. 'What are you looking at?'

She looked up to see a blazing black mark above her head in the shape of a helmet.

She looked back at Nico's dumbstruck face. As the symbol faded he slowly moved his gaze down to her eyes.

'The mark of Hades,' he said quietly. His voice was so eerily smooth; it didn't disturb the absolute stillness of the night.

'What does that mean?' Kally asked.

'It means you've been claimed by your godly parent.' He said. His eyes still locked on hers, he said, 'You're a child of Hades. You're… my sister.'


End file.
